2 Boys Beaten, Their Girlfriends Raped.

Two teenage girls out on a late-night double date were gang-raped and their young boyfriends savagely kicked and beaten with a rock when a group of five men confronted them in a desolate area of Black Star Canyon, authorities said late Wednesday.

One of the boys suffered a fractured skull before the men drove the girls--13 and 15--to a quarry in the rugged hills east of Orange and sexually assaulted them, Orange County sheriff’s officials said.

The hourlong attack early Tuesday morning ended when the men finally drove away, threatening to return and kill the girls if they went to police, sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino said.

Left behind in the canyon, the boys dragged themselves to a main road and waved at motorists until one stopped to help. Deputies later found the girls wandering near Lake Irvine, covered only in rags and cardboard they had found in the scrub.

“Their sense of survival must have been extraordinary. . . . This was a heinous crime,” Amormino said.

One of the boys, 17, remained in intensive care in very serious condition with head injuries, officials said. The other youth, 16, was treated at a hospital and released.

Investigators withheld the identities of all four juveniles, but said the girls are from Tustin and the boys from Mission Viejo.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, detectives canvassed the canyon neighborhood and gas stations in the area in the hope that someone might have seen the five men. The victims described their assailants as Hispanic, in their late teens or early 20s. Three had shaved heads. Based on the victims’ descriptions and statements, officials believe the attackers might have been gang members.

The assault marks a rare episode of serious violence in the rustic canyon, which at night attracts a mix of hikers, drinkers and couples looking for a romantic hideaway.

“It’s a beautiful area during the day, but dangerous at night because it’s so desolate,” Amormino said. “There’s no phone there. If you happen to get a flat tire or something worse, help is a long way away.”

For the four teens, Monday night began with a secret rendezvous.

They left their homes without the knowledge of their parents and met for a double date, sheriff’s officials said. They visited the Block at Orange, then went riding in the 17-year-old’s Honda Civic.

It was just after midnight when they drove into Black Star Canyon and parked at the end of the road. The four got out and walked into the brush, authorities said.

About an hour later, they returned to their car. They noticed another vehicle parked nearby and saw that the Civic’s windows had been smashed. Suddenly five men walked toward them.

The two groups exchanged words, and the men then attacked the boys, knocking them to the ground and kicking them in the head, sheriff’s officials said.

The assailants then left the injured youths behind and split up, driving their car, with the girls shoved into the back seat, and the victims’ Honda.

They drove about half a mile to the quarry, near Black Star Canyon and Silverado Canyon roads, where they sexually assaulted the girls before driving to an isolated area and dumping them.

Eventually, the girls reached a pay phone and called 911.

Meanwhile, their boyfriends staggered roughly half a mile to Santiago Canyon Road. Many motorists who saw the bloody and disheveled pair would not stop. Finally one did, and called 911.

Sheriff’s officials said they have few leads in the case and appealed for help in identifying the assailants. Amormino asked for anyone with information about the attack to call detectives at (714) 628-7170.