A 30-year old American woman was gang-raped in the Indian tourist town of Manali on Tuesday, confirmed a U.S. Embassy official in New Delhi.
"We are in contact with authorities but due to issues of privacy we have no further comment,'' an un-named U.S. Embassy official told AFP.
The American lady was raped by three men in a moving truck as she was hitchhiking back to her guest house after visiting a friend nearby in the town.
The Northern Indian State of Himachal Pradesh Police Chief B. Kamal Kumar told Reuters Television that three men were arrested in connection with the alleged gang-rape.
Police said that medical tests on the woman had confirmed that the she was gang-raped but the three-culprits were yet to be confirmed.
The victim, whose identity was not disclosed, said that the culprits even took away her iPhone and some money.
Following the incident, local police asked all the truck drivers in the town to report at the police station as part of the investigation.
"She could not recall the registration number of the truck. They drove the truck to an isolated spot and raped her for nearly an hour," a police official told local media.
"We have got some clues about the vehicle used for the crime and registered a case of rape under Section 376 of the IPC. We have also informed the US Embassy in New Delhi about the incident," said Superintendent Police, Vinod Dhawan.
Sex crimes in India are common and the Indian National Crime Records Bureau said that more than 24,200 women were reportedly raped in the country in 2011- one every 20 minutes.
In recent months, rape cases in the country have been receiving high media attention and publicity. Last December, thousands of Indian activists marched on the streets of New Delhi protesting the brutal and inhuman gang-rape a 23-year- old college student. She was raped by six men in a moving Delhi bus in December. She later died in a Singapore hospital.
Rape cases in India are rar
ely reported to the police despite high publicity, media attention and high-profile protests.
In March, a Swiss tourist was gang-raped while she camping with her husband in the central state of Madhya Pradesh and in the same month, a British woman jumped out of her hotel room in Uttar Pradesh state to escape from being raped.
