Gang rape draws public anger in India

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NEW DELHI, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- Public ire over the horrific gang rape of a female student in a moving bus in India exploded into protests as the victim fought for her life.

Public anger and shock had been welling up since the attack last Sunday in New Delhi in which the 23-year-old woman, a student of physiotherapy, was gang-raped by six men after she boarded the privately run bus with a male friend. Police said as the bus driver drove around, the woman and her friend were badly beaten, the woman repeatedly raped, and then she and her companion were stripped and tossed out of the vehicle.

The two victims, discovered by highway patrol, were later admitted to a hospital where the woman remained in critical condition.

No other passengers were reported aboard the bus at the time of the attack and curtains were drawn on the vehicle's tinted windows, preventing outsiders from knowing what was happening.

Amid uproar in both houses of the Indian Parliament, where some lawmakers called for new laws providing the death penalty for rapists, angry and shaken citizens took to the streets Wednesday, shouting slogans against authorities and government.

Police have arrested the bus driver and at least three others in the rape incident

Police said the alleged attackers in the bus asked the couple, waiting at a bus stop, to get into their vehicle and began misbehaving after the bus started moving, the Hindustan Times reported.

Doctors said the woman suffered intestinal and other abdominal and head injuries, and had lost much blood. She was put on ventilator support but had started talking Tuesday, the newspaper said.

The Times of India reported three of the four arrested confessed following a court appearance Wednesday. One other person allegedly involved was detained in India's eastern state of Bihar.