NEW DELHI (AP) — A 5-year-old girl was in serious condition Saturday after being raped and tortured by a man who held her in a locked room in India’s capital for two days, officials said.

The incident — which came four months after the fatal gang rape of a woman on a New Delhi bus caused outrage across India about the treatment of women in the country — sparked protests against the authorities’ handling of the case.

The girl went missing Monday and was found Wednesday by neighbors who heard her crying in a room in the same New Delhi building where she lives with her parents, said Delhi police officialDeepak Mishra. The girl was found alone locked in a room and left for dead, he said.

A 24-year-old man who lived in the room where the girl was found was arrested Saturday in Muzaffarpur town in Bihar state, about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) east of New Delhi, Mishra said. The man was flown to New Delhi, where a magistrate ordered that he be held in police custody.

The girl suffered severe internal injuries, as well as cuts and bite marks on her face and torso, said D.K. Sharma, the medical superintendent of the government-run hospital in New Delhi where she was being treated. Sharma described the girl’s condition as “serious” and said doctors were trying to stabilize her condition.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people in New Delhi protested Saturday near the home minister’s residence and outside police headquarters demanding government action against the police for allegedly failing to immediately investigate after the girl was reported missing.

Rights activists and officials said the girl’s parents went to police Monday to report their daughter was missing, but that police refused to register a case. The parents are poor construction workers who had migrated to the city some years ago in search of work.

“The police did nothing. They did not register a complaint, the first step before they can begin investigations,” said Ranjana Kumari, a women’s rights activist and social scientist. “This heinous crime could have been prevented if police had begun investigations promptly.”

Police had no immediate comment on the accusations, but Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said Saturday that an inquiry had been ordered into the handling of the case.

The growing outrage against alleged police high-handedness in India led even the country’s normally reticent leader to react.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called the police behavior “completely unacceptable.” He conveyed to Delhi authorities “the need for the strictest possible action to be taken against the erring officials,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement late Friday.

The fatal beating and gang rape of a young woman aboard a moving New Delhi bus in December sparked outrage and spurred the government to pass tough laws for crimes against women, including the death penalty for repeat offenders or for rape attacks that lead to the victim’s death.

Two other suspects are being sought, said D. K. Arya, a seniorpolice officer. The five men arrested in Datia on Sunday are from villages near where the attack occurred Friday night as the Swiss couple camped in a forest in Datia district of Madhya Pradesh state.

The couple told police that the woman had been raped by seven or eight men, but that it was dark and they could not be sure of the exact number, Arya said. They said the husband also was attacked by the men.

The woman, 39, was treated Saturday at a hospital in the nearby city of Gwalior and was released later that day, police said. Arya said the couple was heading to the Indian capital of New Delhi, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) to the north, later Sunday.

The attack was front-page news in Indian newspapers and happened three months after the fatal gang rape of a woman aboard a New Delhi bus, an attack that spurred outrage over the treatment of women in Indian society and the country’s justice system.

Prior to the attack, the Swiss tourists, who were on a three-month visit, had visited the temple town of Orchha and were planning to cycle to Agra to visit the Taj Mahal, nearly 210 kilometers (130 miles) away.

They set out from Orchha on Friday and pitched their tent in a forest near Jatia village when they were attacked by men armed with sticks, police said.

The men beat up the husband, tied him to a tree and then raped the woman, police said. They also stole the couple’s cellphone, laptop computer and 10,000 rupees ($185). Police said they recovered the laptop and phone from one of the men who was arrested.

The Swiss ambassador in India, Linus von Castelmur, said he spoke with the couple and assured them of the Swiss government’s help and support.

“Their health and treatment is the priority of the moment,” the Swiss Embassy said in a statement.

The embassy said it has urged a “swift investigation and for justice to be done.”

Figures from India’s National Crime Records Bureau show that a woman is raped every 20 minutes in India. However, many incidents of rape and other sexual crimes go unreported due to the stigma attached to such crimes in the conservative country. India’s conviction rate for rapes and other crimes against women is among the lowest in the world.

Last month, the Swiss government issued a travel notice for India that included a warning about “increasing numbers of rapes and other sexual offenses” in the South Asian nation, and the latest incident could prompt other countries to issue similar warnings.

Travel industry representatives in India said the attack, coming so soon after the December gang rape in New Delhi, would affect tourism.

“Such incidents will definitely have a negative impact on tourism. It is very unfortunate,” said Subhash Goyal, head of the Indian Association of Tour Operators.

No arrests have been made so far but police were questioning the men in connection with the rape and assault on the woman and her husband in Datia district of the state, said senior police officer D.K. Arya.

He said the couple told police the woman had been raped by seven or eight men, but that it was dark and they could not be sure of the exact number. As a first step, police have registered a case of rape against seven unidentified men and were searching nearby villages, he said.

The attack comes three months after the fatal gang-rape of a woman aboard a New Delhi bus outraged Indians and spurred the government to pass laws to protect women.

The couple were on a three-month vacation in India. They had visited the temple town of Orchha and were planning to cycle to Agra to visit the Taj Mahal, the monument to love, nearly 210 kilometers (130 miles) away.

They set out from Orchha on Friday and had pitched their tent in a forest near Jatia village when they were attacked by a group of men armed with wooden sticks.

The men beat up the husband, tied him to a tree and then raped the woman, police said.

The Swiss ambassador in India, Linus von Castelmur, has spoken to the couple and has demanded a swift probe of the incident.

Castelmur said he was “most distressed” by the incident and had assured the couple of all help and support.

“Their health and treatment is the priority of the moment,” the embassy said in a statement.

The embassy said it was in touch with local authorities in Madhya Pradesh and has urged a “swift investigation and for justice to be done.”

The killing of the girls aged 7, 9 and 11 last week has horrified Indians still angry over the gang rape and killing of a student on a moving bus in New Delhi in December. The youngest girl had earlier been erroneously identified by Indian news reports as a 5-year-old.

The girls’ bodies were found six days ago in a village well in Bhandara district in Maharashtra after they had gone missing from school.

The victims’ mother said police did not take the case seriously and did nothing for several days until villagers held protests.

Police officer Abhinav Deshmukh said Friday that 30 investigators are now working on the case.