Story highlights
The 31-year-old woman was traveling in northern India
A police official says she accepted a ride in a truck with three men
Authorities are looking for the suspects, the official says
An American woman traveling in northern India was allegedly gang-raped Tuesday after she accepted a ride with three men in a truck, police said.
Authorities said the 31-year-old woman was on her way back to Manali, one of the region’s most popular tourist destinations, when she got into the truck with the men around 1 a.m. They allegedly took her to an isolated area and raped her, police said.
The director general of police in the state of Himachal Pradesh ordered an immediate investigation into the incident and directed state police to scour the area for the alleged perpetrators.
No information has been released on the woman’s condition, authorities said. She has been assigned a police escort as the investigation continues.
Violent rapes in India have made headlines recently. A 4-year-old girl died after being sexually assaulted by a 35-year-old man in Ghansaur in April, and a 5-year-old girl was allegedly raped two weeks earlier in New Delhi. Two men were arrested in that case.
Six men are facing rape and burglary charges after the rape of a Swiss tourist in March.
And a 23-year-old woman was gang-raped on a bus in New Delhi in December and later died of her injuries. Five men were charged in the case; one has since died in prison.
That attack spurred protests across the nation, where most women have stories of sexual harassment and abuse on public transportation or on the streets, according to the Indian Council on Global Relations.
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