A 15-year-old girl was allegedly raped by 38 men in an abandoned hut on May 20, prompting Malaysian police to detain 13 men and search for more suspects, media said on Friday.
The assault took place in the northern state of Kelantan when the girl met a girlfriend and was lured to an empty hut reported to be a local drug haunt, Astro Awani television and The Star daily reported.
The suspects took turns to rape the victim for hours. Police are investigating whether her 17-year-old friend was also raped.
The alleged attack, one of several brutal cases underscoring the violence to which women are subjected across Asia, has sparked outrage among women's groups, Reuters reported.
A proposal to introduce Islamic hudud law, with harsh penalties, would deter offenders, politicians from a Muslim party running the region said.
State and federal police officers either declined comment or could not be immediately reached.
Several of those detained had tested positive for amphetamine, the reports said. According to the New Straits Times, a man and his two teenage sons were among those detained.
The tragic incident could have been stopped if villagers had reported the presence of the addict's hut, police said.
"It is very disturbing to me that no one in the village was even suspicious when the closest neighbor was a mere 20 meters away," police chief Azham told The Star.
"Almost 3,000 rapes were reported to the police in 2012, of which 52 percent involved girls aged 16 and below, according to police statistics," Reuters reported. "Convicted rapists face up to 30 years in prison and whipping, but many on Internet sites wanted stricter punishment."
"We are seeing a prevalence in rape cases because boys are raised in an environment where they think it is okay to use violence," Suri Kempe of Sisters in Islam told Reuters.
After a fatal gang rape of a physiotherapy student on an Indian bus made international headlines in 2012, awareness of rape in Asia has been heightened.
