NEW DELHI—Five young men have been arrested in connection with the rape of a Swiss tourist in central India, the police said Sunday.

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The woman, 39, and her husband were attacked Friday night by a group of men in Madhya Pradesh, a state known for its medieval temples and palaces. The couple were camping in dense forest about 400 yards from a road after visiting the temple town of Orchha when they were attacked by seven or eight men, the police said.

“Their initial intention was to rob the couple,” Syed Mohhamed Afjal, the inspector general of the police for the Chambal area of the state, said in a telephone interview. “They thought that foreigners may have a lot of money,” he said, but found only 10,000 Indian rupees (about $185), a cellphone and a laptop. Then “their intentions changed,” he said, and several of the men raped the woman.



The five men and a sixth suspect who has fled the area are all 19 to 25 years old, Mr. Afjal said. The police interrogated 20 suspects in the case, said Dalip Arya, deputy inspector general for the Chambal area.

The couple were making their way from Orchha to Agra, the site of the Taj Mahal, the police said. The journey was part of a cycling tour from Mumbai to New Delhi. They were in India on three-month tourist visas, Mr. Arya said. The woman’s name was not released, in keeping with Indian laws.

The episode is the latest example of violent sexual attacks on women in India. Reports of rape have risen in recent years, and reports of gang rape are becoming increasingly prevalent, particularly in northern India.

In December, a 23-year-old student was raped by five men and a youth on a moving bus in New Delhi. She later died from her injuries. That attack prompted widespread protests in India and demands that the government do more to protect women. In 2003, a Swiss diplomat was raped in her car in New Delhi by two men, an attack that also set off calls for better policing. No one has been convicted in that case.

The Swiss couple’s “health and treatment is the priority of the moment,” Linus von Castelmur, the Swiss ambassador, said in a statement late Saturday evening. “The embassy has also been in touch with the local authorities and has requested a swift investigation and for justice to be done.”

The Swiss woman and her husband were taken to a nearby police station at 10:45 p.m. by a motorcyclist they stopped on the road, Mr. Arya said. The woman then had to travel about 50 miles to Gwalior for a medical examination, he said, and to reach the closest female doctor.

“Local people are very angry and ashamed over this episode,” said Ratan Suryavanshi, who teaches commerce at the local college and helped translate for the couple at the police station.