New Delhi (CNN) Five female anti-trafficking activists were gang-raped in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand, police said Friday, the same region where two teens were raped and then set on fire last month.

The latest incident took place on Tuesday afternoon in Kochang village in Khunti district, a tribal area in the state, according to Amol Homkar, deputy inspector general of police in Jharkhand's capital, Ranchi.

The five women and three men were performing a street play on the issue of human trafficking when a group of armed men on bikes disrupted the performance.

They were taken to a nearby forest where the women were raped and the men were beaten up. They were released around three hours later, police said

This is the latest high-profile rape case in India, a country grappling with the scourge of sexual violence.

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