France, Britain warn of rape danger in India
France and Britain have revised their travel advisories for India to warn of the risk of sex attacks on female tourists, following two rape cases involving German and Danish tourists.
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The French foreign ministry advised its citizens to exercise "utmost caution" when visiting India in an advisory updated on Thursday.
"Several recent incidents show that foreign women or expatriates can be the victims of such incidents in India," it said.
The UK warned its citizens to "exercise caution when travelling in India even if they are travelling in a group".
A 51-year-old Danish tourist was robbed and gang-raped at knife-point in New Delhi on Tuesday after she lost the way back to her hotel and stopped to ask directions near the backpackers' area of the city.
And an 18-year-old German charity worker told police in the southern city of Chennai on Tuesday that she had been raped on an overnight train from Mangalore.
These are the latest in a series of incidents involving foreign women, including teh alleged drugging and raping of a 33-year-old Polish woman as she travelled in a Delhi taxi with her two-year-old daughter.
Three Nepalese men were handed life sentences last month for raping a US tourist, while six Indians received similar punishment last July over the gang-rape of a Swiss cyclist.
Indian media have given more coverage to sexual assault since massive protests followed the gang-rape on a Delhi bus of a 23-year-old student, who later died of her injuries.
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