A 12-year-old girl was gang-raped by her brothers and uncle before being strangled and beheaded in India, police say.

The unnamed victim was reported missing after she failed to return from school the previous day in Sagar, in India's Madhya Pradesh.

Her mutilated body was found on March 14 and police now say she was raped by her brothers and uncle before being strangled and beheaded by an aunt.

It is the latest shocking sex attack to hit India, which has a grim record of sexual violence.

A 12-year-old girl was gang-raped by male members of her family before being strangled and beheaded in India, according to police (file picture)

According to NDTV, the girl's family filed a missing complaint to police when she did not return from school. A body was found a day later.

Police then became suspicious of her uncle when he accused another villager, with whom he was in a land dispute, of killing her.

A postmortem examination revealed the youngster had been raped before further questioning revealed other family members had allegedly been involved in the kidnap.

Police say she was taken to her uncle's house by a brother before she was gang-raped by the two men and a second brother.

When she threatened to go to police, she was strangled by her aunt before being beheaded and dumped in a field, it is claimed.

A police search also uncovered blood-stained clothes and the alleged murder weapon - a sickle.

Senior police officer Amit Sanghi told NDTV: 'Our two senior officers collected all evidence and recorded the statements of the family members.

'When everything was pieced together, we found that she was raped and murdered by her brothers and uncle. We arrested the uncle and one of the brothers.'

A police hunt is continuing for another of her brothers.

Sexual violence in India has been in the global spotlight since the 2012 gang-rape and murder of a woman on a New Delhi bus sparked angry protests and stiffer penalties.

On average, more than 100 rapes were reported each day in 2016, according to some of the most recent official figures.

Victims are often threatened by the perpetrators against reporting the incidents to the authorities. A slow judiciary and lax policing system also fail the victims, experts say.