Nepali police hold two men, seek two others suspected of gang-raping U.S. woman

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Police in Nepal said on Monday they had detained two men and were searching for two others suspected of raping an American woman in a hotel in Kathmandu.

Senior Superintendent of Police Hementa Pal said police were investigating the incident on June 14 in the Thamel district of the capital, popular with tourists for its bars and restaurants.

U.S. Embassy spokesman Robert Domaingue said due to privacy laws the embassy did not comment on individual cases.

If convicted of gang rape, the men could be jailed for up to ten years. It was not immediately clear if any one had been charged.

A public backlash has been growing in neighboring India against an entrenched culture of violence against women since the rape and killing of a student on a bus in Delhi in 2012, which led to the introduction of tougher rape laws.

In the latest attack attracting international criticism, two teenage cousins were found hanging from a tree after being raped in the north of India in May.

(Reporting by Gopal Sharma; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)

[Crime scene image via Shutterstock]