A 51-year-old Danish tourist was allegedly gang-raped in the heart of India's capital and police say they've detained several suspects for questioning.
A police spokesman says that on Tuesday the woman asked a group of men for directions back to her hotel after she became lost. The Press Trust of India news agency reports that the men allegedly lured her to a secluded area near New Delhi's Connaught Place where she was robbed, beaten and sexually assaulted at knife-point.
"When she came [in], it was miserable," Amit Bahl, owner of the Amax hotel in the Paharganj area, where the woman was staying, was quoted by The Associated Press as saying. The alleged victim, he said, was "not in good shape."
The hotel is popular with backpackers and a sign outside reads that it's "Recommended by Lonely Planet," the AP says.
The attack is the latest to focus world attention on sexual violence in India, where four men were sentenced to death in September for the gang-rape of a 23-year-old woman in the capital. The alleged attack on the Danish tourist follows reports of similar assaults in India on a Swiss tourist last March and a U.S. woman in June. Three men were convicted and sentenced to 20 years last month in the June incident.
Voice of America reports:
"Earlier this month, a Polish woman was raped by a taxi driver while traveling with her two-year-old daughter to New Delhi. [And] ... a British woman said she was forced to jump out of her hotel room window to avoid a sexual attack in Agra, the city that is home to the Taj Mahal."