By AFP

Six men have been arrested over the rape of a passenger on a coach in India, police said Sunday, weeks after the gang-rape and murder of a student on a bus in New Delhi sparked nationwide protests.

The victim had boarded the service to her in-laws' home in the northern state of Punjab when she was abducted and driven to a house in a district bordering the city of Amritsar, local police officer Raj Jeet Singh said.

Five men joined the driver and conductor and took turns to rape the victim before dropping her off near her in-laws' village on Saturday morning, he said.

"Six men have been arrested on allegations of having raped a 29-year-old woman... after forcibly taking her to an unknown location on the night of January 11," the policeman told AFP, adding that a seventh suspect was being hunted.

The attack echoes the December 16 gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old student in Delhi, with five men on trial in the case, which has fuelled anger across India over the treatment of women.

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