A girl of five has died after being raped in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

She was being treated at a hospital in Nagpur city in neighbouring Maharashtra state. Two men have been arrested in connection with the attack.

The girl was lured by one of the men to a farm, where she was then raped by the other man, who was a friend of her parents. The parents, poor building workers, were at work when the attack occurred.

A hospital spokesman said the girl suffered a brain injury when the men tried to smother her cries and was in a coma until she died.

India has seen a recent sharp rise in the numbers of rapes and sexual crimes against women and children. Officials say it is the result of more people reporting the crimes.

Earlier this month, another five-year-old girl was kidnapped, raped and tortured by two men who then abandoned her in a locked room in New Delhi. She is still recovering in hospital.

Police refused to register a case when the girl's parents reported that their daughter was missing. Hundreds of people protested outside police headquarters in New Delhi for three days, angry over allegations of police inaction and indifference to the parents' complaints.

The attacks on the young girls come four months after the fatal gang rape of a woman on a New Delhi bus sparked outrage across India about the treatment of women in the country. The December attack 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.