NEW DELHI: Five policemen have been arrested for allegedly gangraping a teenage schoolgirl in northern India, police said Friday.

The alleged sexual assault is the latest in a string of attacks reported in India since the fatal gang-rape of a student in Delhi a year ago shocked the nation and resulted in lawmakers passing tougher penalties for crimes against women.

The policemen in the city of Chandigarh were taken into custody after the 16-year-old told her younger sister about the alleged assaults.

“All five accused policemen have been arrested and further investigations are being carried out,” police superintendent Sukhchain Singh Gill told AFP.

The victim was allegedly attacked by one of the policeman who was investigating a complaint she had lodged about domestic abuse by her alcoholic father, Gill said.

Later, the accused raped her at gunpoint along with four fellow policemen, police alleged.

Under the recently strengthened rape laws, the accused could face life in prison if found guilty.