British tourist in India jumps out hotel window fearing sexual assault
| New Delhi
A British woman traveling around India jumped out of the third-floor window of her hotel room on Tuesday after the hotel's owner tried to force his way into the room at 4 a.m., causing her to fear she was about to be sexually assaulted, police said.
The woman was not badly hurt, although she suffered some injuries to her legs, police officer Sushant Gaur said.
Police arrested the hotel owner in connection with the incident in Agra, the site of the Taj Mahal, one of India's most cherished tourist attractions, Gaur said.
The Times of India reports that two men entered her room, including a manager of the Hotel Agra Mahal. Police said the victim said that she had earlier rejected the hotel manager's overtures offering a massage.
"She got frightened so she ran to the other end of the room and jumped out of the window," Pawan Kumar, superintendent of police in Agra, said.
On Friday, a Swiss tourist was gang-raped in central India. Six men have been arrested in that attack.
The violence came amid heightened concern about sexual assaults in India in recent months that followed the fatal gang-rape of a young woman on a moving bus in New Delhi in December.
That rape sparked public protests demanding the government do a better job of protecting women.
In response, the government passed a law increasing prison terms for rape and providing for the death penalty in cases of rape that result in death or leave the victim in a coma. It has also made voyeurism, stalking, acid attacks and the trafficking of women punishable under criminal law.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.
