French tourists attacked in India's Uttar Pradesh

NEW DELHI, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- A group of French tourists, accompanied by their Indian friends, were roughed up and assaulted allegedly by locals in northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, officials said Monday.

The group was attacked on Sunday evening in Mirzapur district, about 285 km southeast of Lucknow, the capital city of Uttar Pradesh.

"The tourists were on a visit to a waterfall here when some people misbehaved with them," a police official at Mirzapur said. "When the tourists were wrapping up their visit, a couple of young men passed lewd remarks at the women in the group and later on few others joined them and attacked them."

Reports said one of the tourists was injured in the fight.

Police have detained eight people in this regard.

Local media reports said initially police tried to shirk responsibility and kept the group waiting for hours when it approached them for registration of complaint.

Tourism Minister KJ Alphons has called the incident deplorable and called for more sensitivity towards foreign nationals.

The attack came days after a German national and a Swiss couple were attacked in Sonbhadra and Fatehpur Sikri of the state. Enditem