MUMBAI: A man was killed and an Israeli female tourist and Indian woman were gang-raped by three men in an attack late on Thursday near a popular Unesco World Heritage site in southern India, local police said on Saturday.

The Indian man and two women were stargazing with two other male tourists in the town of Hampi when the three men attacked them following an altercation over money, police superintendent Ram Arasiddi told Reuters over the phone.

The assailants pushed the men into a river canal before raping the women, he said. Two of the men, including an American, survived, and the third man’s body was recovered on Saturday morning.

Police have arrested two of the men accused of the attack and were carrying out further investigations, Arasiddi said.

Attacks on women in India gained international attention last year after the brutal rape-homicide of a junior doctor at a hospital in the eastern city of Kolkata, sparking national outrage and protests over a lack of safety for women.

Published in Dawn, March 9th, 2025