NEW DELHI – Indian police were holding six men on Thursday after a Russiantourist was allegedly drugged and gang-raped in a popular southern touristtown, officials said.

Media reports said the 21-year-old had bite marks on her face and arms whenshe was found naked and unconscious on the floor of her hostel room earlyon Monday.

“Six men have been detained over the rape and drugging of the woman,”investigating officer Mangayar Karasi told AFP.

The woman, who was travelling on her own, had arrived in the town ofTiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu state, 190 kilometres (120 miles) fromChennai, last Thursday.

Those in custody included the hostel manger and her tourist guide, who toldpolice he found her on the floor hours after they had consensual sex,another investigator said.

She said the woman was being treated in hospital for a drug overdose andminor injuries, with efforts being made to record her statement.

The medical report has confirmed sexual assault, the officer said.

Local and foreign tourists flock to Tiruvannamalai for its 9th-centuryAnnamalaiyar Temple, one of the largest Hindu temple complexes spread over10 hectares (25 acres).

Sexual violence is rife in India with nearly 110 rapes reported every daybut activists say that figure is the tip of the iceberg as most cases gounreported.

Several foreign tourists have been sexually assaulted in India in recentmonths.

Last month a Japanese tourist was raped by a taxi driver in a north Indiantown, followed by the rape of a 20-year-old Canadian tourist by her guesthouse owner in Delhi.

India’s junior interior minister Wednesday told the national parliamentthat 110,333 rape cases were reported in the country between 2014 and 2016.

The country’s dire record on sexual violence has been in the globalspotlight since the 2012 gang-rape and murder of a woman on a New Delhi bussparked angry protests.

The incident led to tougher sentences and reforms in the country’s rapelaws but sexual crime against women, as well as against minors, remainrampant. – APP/AFP