NEW DELHI

A five-year-old Indian girl was battling for her life on Friday after being kidnapped and brutally raped in the latest incident of sexual violence which has triggered nationwide protests.
The girl was attacked inside a locked room over a 48-hour period, police said, after being abducted as she played outside on Monday in a lower-middle class area of the capital New Delhi.
"We initially registered a case of kidnapping. We have now launched a preliminary inquiry into rape and attempted murder," Rajan Bhagat told AFP, adding a hunt was on to catch a family neighbour who is the main accused.
The child was admitted to the intensive care unit of a city hospital on Wednesday and doctors said her condition was "critical" as news channels provided wall-to-wall coverage. "The girl was traumatised when she was brought to us. There were injuries to her lips, cheeks and chest wall. There were bruises on her neck," RN Bansal, medical superintendent of a local government hospital, told NDTV news channel.
The injuries to her neck suggested that the attacker may have tried to strangle her and left her to die in the room, he said.
Doctors said the girl's genital area had been mutilated and that objects had been inserted inside her, causing serious internal injuries and infection. "We are keeping her under constant observation. The next few hours are going to be very critical," Bansal said. The girl was found after a passerby heard her crying and alerted the police. The incident comes just months after India was shaken by the horrific gang-rape of a student in Delhi on a bus last year that triggered countrywide demonstrations and debate over the status of women and girls and their safety.
The woman succumbed to her injuries 13 days after the assault in which her attackers drove an iron rod inside her, damaging her internal organs.