The man gagged the baby to stop her from crying, the police said. (Representational)

A nine-month-old girl died in Telangana's Warangal today after a man gagged her after an alleged rape attempt, the police said.

The accused took the baby while she was sleeping alongside her parents on the terrace of her home and allegedly assaulted her sexually, a senior police officer told news agency PTI.

The man, who stays in the same neighbourhood as that of the baby seems to have gagged her when she started crying, resulting in her death, the police officer said.

The child's parents informed the police that their daughter was missing. They traced the accused and found the baby with him. She was rushed to a nearby hospital, but was declared "brought dead", the officer said.

A case was filed against the accused under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. He was taken into custody and is being questioned, the police said.

The body of the child was shifted to a state-run hospital. The exact cause of her death and whether she was sexually assaulted or not will be known after an autopsy, they added.