Tourist to leave India after sex attack scare

AP

The Hotel Agra Mahal

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New Delhi - Indian police said on Wednesday that a British tourist who jumped off her hotel balcony to escape a feared sex attack would return home, as two men were set to appear in court over the incident.

The victim was admitted to hospital on Tuesday with minor leg injuries sustained as she fled her hotel in the Taj Mahal city of Agra after two men allegedly tried to force their way into her room in the middle of the night.

The hotel manager and another member of staff at the Hotel Agra Mahal have been charged with harassment and will appear in court later on Wednesday, deputy superintendent of Agra police Swaranjeet told AFP.

“She has spoken to her family in the UK and her mother will be coming here to take her back home,” added the police officer, who uses only one name.

“The girl is much better, she is safe. She is still here.”

The woman, in her early 30s, has told police the hotel manager had been pestering her with offers of a massage and then tried to force his way into her room at 04.00am on Tuesday morning.

The incident came just days after a Swiss cyclist was gang-raped in the central state of Madhya Pradesh by a group of villagers late Friday, while on a cycling trip with her husband that was meant to include a stopover in Agra.

That attack refocused attention on the country's poor record on safety for women, after thousands took to the streets in nationwide protests following the fatal gang-rape of an Indian student on a bus in New Delhi in December.

India's lower house of parliament passed a bill on Tuesday that would toughen sentences for sex offenders and crimes such as stalking, groping and voyeurism. - AFP