Indian girl, 5, ‘critical’ after brutal rape

A five-year-old Indian girl was battling for her life after being kidnapped and brutally raped in the latest incident of sexual violence which has triggered nationwide protests.

The girl was attacked inside a locked room over a 48-hour period, police said, after being abducted as she played outside in a lower-middle class area of the capital New Delhi.

“We initially registered a case of kidnapping. We have now launched a preliminary inquiry into rape and attempted murder,” Rajan Bhagat said, adding a hunt was on to catch a family neighbour who is the main accused.

The child was admitted to the intensive care unit of a city hospital and doctors said her condition was “critical”.

The injuries to her neck suggested her attacker may have tried to strangle her and left her to die in the room, a hospital spokesman said.

Doctors said the girl’s genital area had been mutilated.

A passerby heard her crying and alerted police.

The incident comes just months after India was shaken by the horrific gang-rape of a student in Delhi on a bus last year that triggered countrywide demonstrations and debate over the status of women and girls and their safety. The student died 13 days after the attack.