Danish tourist gang-raped in India

A DANISH woman was gang-raped in the Indian capital after getting lost and asking a group of men for directions, in a popular backpacker area of New Delhi.

As the latest high-profile case of sexual assault against women in the country, the 51-year-old woman was attacked late Tuesday at knifepoint by the group of more than six men after losing her way to her hotel, according to local media reports.

\"She lost her way when this incident happened. Currently, the conceed police team has identified suspects and is interrogating them. The investigation is on,\" Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat told AFP.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told her friend about the attack when she eventually reached her hotel in Paharganj near the city's central Connaught Place, Bhagat said.

The woman had approached the group for directions near the New Delhi Railway Station after visiting a city museum, but they took her to a secluded spot before raping her at knifepoint, the Press Trust of India news agency reported citing unnamed police sources.

Police say a group of men have been detained over the brutal attack.

\"We have detained a group of men and we are questioning them over the incident,\" special commissioner of police Deepak Mishra told AFP.

\"The woman reported the attack to police and we are investigating. She has declined to undergo a medical examination (to confirm the rape).\" \"They also took her mobile phone and other items and money in euros.\"

Mishra declined to say exactly how many men had been detained over the incident on State Entry Road opposite the New Delhi Railway Station, but local media put the number at 15.

\"The victim was obviously traumatised but was still clearly able to recall the entire crime sequence,\" another investigating officer told AFP on the condition of anonymity.

\"It helped speed up the process of narrowing down the possible suspects from the area,\" he added.

Kuldeep Singh, a receptionist at the victim's hotel, said the woman had appeared calm when she retued at about 8:30pm but then confided in a fellow traveller.

\"She first came to me at the reception desk and told me that she needed 200 rupees to give to the auto driver as she had been robbed,\" Singh said.

Police took her statements in the presence of the Danish ambassador, fellow staff member Manish Sharma said.

Danish ambassador Freddy Svane told AFP the embassy was providing assistance to the woman, but declined to give further details.

According to The Times of India newspaper, the women had been in India for about a week, travelling first to Agra, the home of the Taj Mahal, before arriving in New Delhi.

The case comes weeks after a Polish woman was allegedly drugged and raped by a taxi driver while travelling with her two-year-old daughter to New Delhi.

Last month India marked the first anniversary of the death of a student who was gang-raped on a moving Delhi bus in an attack that sent shock waves across the nation.

The gang-rape triggered massive protests over the levels of violence against women, but in the last 12 months reported cases of local and foreign women being attacked have shot up significantly.

A judge last month sentenced three Nepalese men to 20 years in jail for the gang-rape of a US tourist in June in the northe state of Himachal Pradesh.

Six men were sentenced to life in prison last July for the gang-rape and robbery of a 39-year-old Swiss woman cyclist who had been holidaying in the central state of Madhya Pradesh.