SHADNAGAR, India (AP) — Four men suspected of raping and killing a woman in southern India were fatally shot by police Friday, a police official said.
The men were killed around 3:30 a.m., according to Priya, a police sub-inspector in Hyderabad who goes by one name.
Another police official said the suspects tried to grab an officer’s firearm and escape during a visit to the crime scene. That officer spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The suspects were taken to reconstruct the crime scenes, both where the rape is suspected of taking place and the spot where the woman’s body was burned about half a kilometer (a third of a mile) away, according to Shreedharan, an official in the police commissioner’s office who uses one name.
The burned body of a 27-year-old woman was found last week by a passer-by in an underpass in Hyderabad after she went missing the previous night.
The high-profile case has sparked protests across India.
About 300 people gathered at the crime scene in Shadnagar, a town in the state of Telangana about an hour southwest of Hyderabad, to praise police for fatally shooting the suspects.
Some hugged officers and lifted them into the air chanting “long live police,” while others showered them with flowers.
