Swiss bicycle tourist gang-raped in India

Officials detain, question 13 men and released six.

NEW DELHI — A Swiss woman who was on a cycling trip in central India with her husband was gang-raped by four men on Friday night in Madhya Pradesh, a state famed for its ancient temples and palaces, police said.

The episode is the latest example of violent sexual attacks on women in India, and comes only three months after the fatal gang-rape of a woman aboard a moving bus in New Delhi.

That crime horrified Indians and set off nationwide protests against India’s treatment of women and spurred the government to hurry through a new package of laws to protect them. Reported rapes have risen in recent years, and reports of gangrape are becoming increasingly prevalent, particularly in northern India.

Authorities detained and questioned 13 men in connection with the latest attack, which occurred as the couple camped out in a dense forest in Madhya Pradesh state after bicycling from the temple town of Orchha, local police officer R.K. Gurjar said. The couple, who were in India on a three-month tourist visa, were making their way from Orchha to Agra, the home of the Taj Mahal. Their journey was part of a cycling tour from Mumbai to New Delhi.

The men beat the couple and gang-raped the woman, Gurjar said. They also stole the couple’s mobile phone, a laptop computer and 10,000 rupees ($185).

The woman, 39, was treated at a hospital in the nearby city of Gwalior, Gurjar said.

A photo showed the woman walking while being escorted by police to the hospital. Her face was concealed with a hood, a common practice in India, where law does not allow rape victims to be identified publicly to protect them from the stigma attached to rape in the conservative country.

Police detained 13 men and questioned them, Gurjar said. Six of the men were released after questioning. No other details were immediately available.

Indian television stations showed scores of police searching the forest where the attack occurred.

Swiss Foreign Ministry spokesman Tilman Renz described the case as “deeply disturbing” and said Swiss diplomats were assisting the couple.

ASSOCIATED PRESS A Swiss woman (center), who, according to police, was gang-raped by a group of four men while touring by bicycle with her husband, is escorted Saturday by policewomen for a medical examination at a hospital in Gwalior, in central India.