India girls 'attacked for meeting Muslim boys'

Two female students have been attacked by a group of men in the southern Indian city of Mangalore, reportedly for meeting up with two Muslim boys.

The group of teenaged friends were in a theme park when they were assaulted.

Police told the BBC that they had arrested three men, who allegedly belonged to a right-wing group, and were looking for other suspects.

The incident was caught on video and widely shared online, triggering outrage at so-called "moral policing".

One of the men is seen heckling the girls, even as they were being escorted out of the park by police.

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The two girls and the Muslim boys are students in the same secondary school, according to local media reports.

Police told the BBC that visitors at the park spotted the group of friends and then reported them to a right-wing fringe group, leading to members of the group showing up at the park and attacking them.

The video shows the students being hit multiple times by the men, who also shouted at them, asking them to call their parents.

Moral policing - where vigilante groups act against what they see as "immoral behaviour" - is seen as fairly common in Mangalore, with similar incidents going back as far as 2009.

These include assaults on women for going to bars, attacks on students at a house party, and the beating of a Muslim man for speaking to his Hindu colleague.