Two arrested over India Ghaziabad 'gang rape'

Police in a suburb of the Indian capital, Delhi, have arrested two men in connection with the alleged gang rape of a 19-year-old girl on Saturday.

The girl was travelling in an auto rickshaw in Ghaziabad when at least two of her co-passengers allegedly raped her, a senior police official said.

Police say they are looking for a third suspect.

The gang rape and murder of a student on a Delhi bus in December sparked protests across India.

Reports in the Indian media said that the teenage girl had taken an auto rickshaw home from near a busy mall in Indirapuram in Ghaziabad.

Details of what happened next are still sketchy.

The girl apparently told the police that she was gagged, raped, robbed and thrown out of the vehicle near a highway.

Last week, there were violent protests in Delhi after reports that a seven-year-old girl was sexually assaulted at a school.

The principal and four employees of the municipal school have been suspended in connection with the case.

There has also been angry debate in the parliament over last month's rape and murder of three sisters, aged six to 11, in the state of Maharashtra.

No-one has been arrested and opposition MPs have criticised the slow pace of the investigation.

The issue of sexual violence against women and girls has been under intense scrutiny in India after the rape and murder of a student on a Delhi bus in December led to widespread protests.

Six people have been charged over the case which shocked the nation.

Five of them are on trial in a specially convened fast-track court and they face the death penalty.

The sixth accused, a minor, is being tried in a juvenile court. He could be sentenced to three years in a reform facility.

All the six accused have pleaded not guilty.