NEW DELHI: A Swiss female tourist was gang-raped by a group of eight men in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, police said on Saturday.
The incident took place at a village near Datia town on Friday night when a 39-year-old Swiss woman, who was on a cycling trip from the temple town of Orchha to Seonda with her husband in impoverished Madhya Pradesh state, fell prey to eight men who attacked the couple, sexually assaulted the woman and robbed the pair, said district superintendent of police CS Solanki.
The men attacked the couple with wooden sticks, beat up and overpowered the husband and raped the woman, according to the complaint made by the husband, Solanki said. They also looted the couple’s belongings before fleeing, he added.
The woman had been admitted to a hospital in the nearby town of Gwalior, with preliminary tests confirming that she had been raped, Indian media reported, citing police sources.
Solanki said eight people had been detained for questioning in connection with the incident but that police were still searching for all of the attackers.
The attack comes just months after a 23-year-old student was gang raped on a bus in New Delhi in December last year.
The rising number of rape cases in India has been a cause of concern. A total of 24 206 cases of rape were reported in 2011, according to government data. The figures for 2012 have not yet been collated.
DND
