A 51-year-old Danish tourist was allegedly gang-raped in New Delhi, the capital of India, late Tuesday, police reports say.
According to the local media reports, the victim was sexually assaulted Tuesday night by more than six men from whom she had sought directions to the hotel she was staying in. The men took her to a remote place, raped her at knife-point and robbed her of cash, iPad and phone, reported Reuters.
"She lost her way when this incident happened. Currently, the concerned police team has identified suspects and is interrogating them. The investigation is on," Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat told Agence France Presse.
After reaching the hotel, the woman narrated the incident to the manager. He then immediately called the police. The police said that the woman refused a medical examination.
According to The Times of India daily, the women was in India for a week. She first visited Agra, popular for the Taj Mahal and reached New Delhi, Tuesday.
Confirming the news, Danish Ambassador Freddy Svane told Bloomberg that the woman was gang raped. The news site further reported that the police have detained at least 15 suspects. "Police have identified the men involved in the crime and are conducting further investigation," Deepak Mishra, special commissioner of police, said.
In December 2012, a 23-year-old physiotherapy student was gang-raped, tortured and murdered in a moving bus in the capital, which led to massive protests throughout the country. All the six accused were arrested. One committed suicide by hanging himself in his cell, four were given death sentence and the sixth, who was below 18, was given three years in prison, maximum punishment for juveniles in India.
The gang-rape affected the Indian tourism industry drastically. A report by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India showed that foreign women tourists visiting the country dropped by 35 percent in 2012.
Also, incidences of rape of foreigners have increased in the past one year in the country. Recently, a Polish woman was drugged and raped by a taxi driver while travelling with her two-year-old daughter to New Delhi, reported the AFP.
Last month, three Nepalese men were sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment for gang-raping a U.S. tourist in June in Himachal Pradesh, a state in northern India.
A 39-year-old Swiss woman was gang-raped and robbed in Madhya Pradesh, a central state of India. The judge sentenced the six men accused of the crime to life in prison last July.
