US tourist gang-raped in northern India: Police

Truck driver and two accomplices gang-rape American victim for nearly one hour.

NEW DELHI: A US tourist was gang-raped by a truck driver and two accomplices after hitching a ride in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, police said Tuesday.

The incident follows the alleged rape of a 21-year-old Irish charity worker in Kolkata at the weekend and comes as the country attempts to tackle widespread sex crime with tougher anti-rape laws.

"The 30-year-old was raped by men in a truck on Monday night. They offered her a lift and she accepted it," police Inspector Abhimanyu Kumar told AFP from Manali, a tourist destination in the foothills of the Himalayas.

Mass protests erupted in the capital and other cities in December and January following the fatal gang-rape of a student on a bus in New Delhi, a crime which brought simmering anger among women to the surface.

Kumar said medical tests confirmed the tourist was raped and police were hunting for the accused in the Manali area.

"The woman cannot remember the number plate of the truck and she could not understand what the accused were talking about. They drove the truck to an isolated spot and raped her for nearly one hour," he said.

Kumar said every truck driver in Manali has been ordered to report to the local police station as part of the investigation.

The woman, who cannot be identified under Indian law, arrived in Manali on Monday and will stay on in the town to help investigators, police said.

"She will have to identify the accused when they are arrested," said another senior police officer V K Dhawan.

The woman was on a holiday with three other Americans and was returning to her guest house alone after bathing at a hot water spring.

The natural water spring, called "Vashist", is a tourist spot renowned for its temples and bathing tanks.

"The victim's friends wanted to spend more time at the spring but she was tired and decided to walk alone to the guest house," Dhawan added.

"It is a big challenge to trace the accused," he added.

More than 2,000 trucks a day ply the Manali highway which connects the town with remote Himalayan villages.

Police put her in touch with the US embassy officials in New Delhi.

"We are in contact with authorities but due to issues of privacy we have no further comment," a US embassy spokesperson told AFP.

The incident comes a day after police in eastern India arrested a local businessman for allegedly drugging and raping an Irish woman after her birthday party at the weekend.

A survey by a trade body earlier this year found the number of foreign women tourists visiting India had dropped by 35 per cent following several sex attacks that have made global headlines.

A Swiss cyclist was gang-raped in the central state of Madhya Pradesh in March. A South Korean tourist was allegedly drugged and raped in the same state in January by the son of the owner of a hotel where she was staying.

New measures passed by Indian lawmakers in March increased punishments for sex offenders to include the death penalty if a victim dies and a minimum 20-year prison sentence for gang-rape.