Police have promised swift justice for Thursday's violent attack
A second man has been arrested over the gang-rape of a 22-year-old journalist in the Indian city of Mumbai.
A 19-year-old man was arrested on Friday over the attack at
an abandoned textile mill in the centre of the city. Three others are
still being sought.The woman, who was on a photo assignment with a male colleague at the time, is in hospital with multiple injuries. Her colleague was beaten.
The case has renewed public outrage over sexual violence in India.
There were nationwide protests last December following the gang-rape of a 23-year-old student on a bus in the capital, Delhi. She later died from her injuries.
The case led to the introduction of tougher laws against sexual violence, but many are asking whether these have had any effect.
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India's financial capital has always been seen as the safest city for women in India.
Of course there are still countless cases of sexual harassment (known as Eve-teasing in India), which take place, but it is generally seen as a safe place for women to travel alone in. It's normal for young females to take auto-rickshaws, taxis or trains on their own, even late at night.
Compare this with Delhi, the scene of last year's highly publicised gang rape, where women are urged not to travel alone past 9pm, and which widely has a reputation as being unsafe for women.
What makes event in Mumbai more shocking is that it happened at 6pm, in a very central area of the city, not too far from a large mall, the racecourse and a busy railway station, as well as plenty of offices. I've been in this area alone on many occasions, and never once felt I might be at undue risk.
Silent protest
Of course there are still countless cases of sexual harassment (known as Eve-teasing in India), which take place, but it is generally seen as a safe place for women to travel alone in. It's normal for young females to take auto-rickshaws, taxis or trains on their own, even late at night.
Compare this with Delhi, the scene of last year's highly publicised gang rape, where women are urged not to travel alone past 9pm, and which widely has a reputation as being unsafe for women.
What makes event in Mumbai more shocking is that it happened at 6pm, in a very central area of the city, not too far from a large mall, the racecourse and a busy railway station, as well as plenty of offices. I've been in this area alone on many occasions, and never once felt I might be at undue risk.
Police have promised swift justice and
deployed elite units to search for the suspects, sketches of whom were
released on Friday.
A 19-year-old unemployed man from south Mumbai was arrested
on Friday, and the second suspect was arrested before dawn on Saturday.The victim of Thursday's attack worked as an intern with a Mumbai-based English magazine and had gone to the Shakti Mills - a former textile mill that now lies abandoned and in ruins - with a male colleague for a photo shoot, police said.
"The man [victim's male colleague] was clicking pictures on a camera while the girl was taking pictures on her mobile phone in the dilapidated building when one accused accosted them and inquired why they were there at the railway property," Mumbai police commissioner Satyapal Singh said on Thursday.
"He later called four more men to the spot. They tied the male colleague's hands with a belt and took the girl to the bushes and raped her."
The "reprehensible" attack took place between "6pm and 6:30pm", Mr Singh said.
Hundreds of demonstrators have staged a silent protest in the city, and many people across India took to social media to express their anger that another such attack had been allowed to happen.
Photojournalists were among hundreds who demonstrated against the rape in Mumbai
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