A father has been arrested over allegations he raped an 18-month-old girl in front of his young children.

The toddler had gone to play with her neighbours' two children - aged two and four - on Wednesday and was then raped in their one-room home in New Delhi, India, police said today.

The girl, who is recovering at a New Delhi hospital, was found dumped outside her house bleeding and in pain by her mother after the alleged assault.

The suspect - reportedly 33 - was arrested yesterday, said Harinder Singh, an officer in the Aman Vihar neighbourhood where the assault apparently took place.

The girl, who is recovering at a New Delhi hospital, was found dumped outside her house bleeding and in pain by her mother after the alleged assault. Pictured: A file image of a woman protesting against rape outside a court in New Delhi

The head of the Delhi Commission for Women, Swati Maliwal, met the child and said she was in a stable condition after undergoing surgery. She tweeted before the meeting: 'Can't describe my feelings. She went thru so much pain. How will I answer her silent questions?'

The wife of the accused was working on the terrace during the horrific rape, First Post reported.

He has been charged with aggravated penetrative sexual assault under India's Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, which means he could face life imprisonment.

The head of the Delhi Commission for Women, Swati Maliwal, met the child and said she was in a stable condition after undergoing surgery.

'The poor child cannot even speak, she is just laying there,' Maliwal said.

She tweeted before the meeting: 'Can't describe my feelings. She went thru so much pain. How will I answer her silent questions?'

The attack adds to a grim record of sexual assaults on women and children in India.

It comes after news that a teenager was beaten, gang-raped for three hours by four men and then robbed in central India.

When the 19-year-old tried to report the attack she was sent to three police stations and told she was making the tale up - despite both her parents being officers.

Investigators eventually agree to take the case but only after she chased down and apprehended two of the alleged attackers herself, along with help from her parents.

The man has been charged with aggravated penetrative sexual assault under India's Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, which means he could face life imprisonment. Pictured: The Supreme Court of India

Police in Bohpal, Madhya Pradesh province, have now suspended a senior officer for refusing to take the complaint, the Times of India reports.

The attack took place on Tuesday - the day before the alleged toddler rape in Delhi - as the woman was leaving coaching classes for a civil service exam she is due to take which will also allow her to join the police.

Around 7pm a man named as Golu Bihari Chadhar, who is on bail for the murder of an infant girl, grabbed her by the hand, the Times reported.

The teen fought back so Chadar called accomplice Amar Ghuntu who helped to drag her towards a nearby river bed underneath a bridge, it is alleged.

Refusing to give up, the girl hit both men with a stone, causing them to beat her with another rock before they allegedly tore her clothes off, tied her up and raped her.

Another attack took place on Tuesday - the day before the alleged toddler rape in Delhi - when a woman was leaving coaching classes for a civil service exam she is due to take which will also allow her to join the police

After a while Chadar left to fetch cigarettes, gutka - a type of chewing tobacco - and clothes for the woman, it is claimed.

When he returned he was accompanied by two other men, named only as Rajesh and Ramesh, and all four men allegedly raped her again.

Nearly 11,000 cases of child rape were reported in 2015, according to the National Crime Records Bureau's latest figures.

About three children are raped everyday in Delhi alone, it said.

A UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2014 said one in three rape victims in India was a minor and expressed alarm over the widespread sexual abuse of children.