UK woman stabbed to death in India

A 24-year-old British woman holidaying in Kashmir India was found dead on Saturday. Police have arrested a Dutch man on suspicion of her murder. The 43-year-old Dutch national was taken into custody as he tried to flee the scene. Police superintendent Tahir Sajjad told AFP that the woman had multiple stab wounds and a knife was found close to her body. “We walked into a pool of blood in her room," he added. Officers are investigating whether the victim was sexually assaulted, in what is the latest in a string of attacks on tourists travelling in India. "We can confirm the Jammu and Kashmir police have the body of a British woman. We have contacted the next-of-kin and we are providing consular assistance to the family," a British Embassy spokeswoman told AFP in New Delhi. "At this moment, we cannot reveal the identity of the woman," she said. Police arrested the suspect near a highway some 75 kilometers from Srinagar and identified him as 43-year-old Richard De-Wit. De-Wit had been staying in the same houseboat as the victim and he had arrived two days earlier, police said. He had allegedly fled in a small boat which capsized as he was trying to reach the shore, forcing him to swim. The suspect was carrying only his passport when he was arrested, police said. Last month, a 39-year-old Swiss cyclist was allegedly gang-raped and robbed by six men in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Also last month, a British woman suffered leg injuries when she jumped from a hotel balcony in the northern tourist city of Agra, fearing a sexual assault by hotel employees. The safety of women in India has been in the spotlight since the fatal gang-rape of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student on a bus in Delhi in December, 2012.