Toddler and five-year-old raped in New Delhi attacks

Assaults come a week after girl (4) raped and slashed with a blade in city

Two young girls - a toddler and a five-year-old - have been raped in separate attacks in New Delhi, police said, in the latest incidents of sexual violence against girls and women in India.

A two-and-a-half-year-old girl who was playing outside her home was raped in a west Delhi suburb on Friday evening, said Delhi police deputy superintendent Pushpendra Kumar.

Family members found the child lying unconscious and bleeding in a park three hours after she went missing during a power outage in the neighbourhood.

Police have not yet made any arrests over the incident.

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Meanwhile, police said they were questioning three men arrested over the gang-rape of the five-year-old on Friday evening in east Delhi.

Both girls are in a stable condition in hospital, police said.

The rapes occurred a week after a four-year-old girl was found dumped near a railway track after being raped and slashed with a blade.

A series of recent attacks has renewed public fury and horror over India’s inability to halt chronic violence against women and girls.

In December 2012, the fatal gang-rape of a 23-year-old medical student on a moving bus led to a national outcry.

In response to that attack, the government doubled the maximum prison term for rape to 20 years, created special courts to prosecute cases more quickly, and made voyeurism and acid attacks specific crimes under the law.

India’s National Crime Records Bureau says more than 2,000 girls and women were raped in New Delhi in 2014.