No charges yet in St Lucia rape case

Police on the Caribbean island of St Lucia wrongly announced they had charged six men with the rape of two British women, officials have said.

According to the island's acting assistant police commissioner, investigators are still interviewing "several" suspects in connection with the incident and no charges have been filed.

It comes a day after a police statement said six detained men had been charged.

The British victims, aged 24 and 31, were attacked by a gang of masked men last Tuesday on an isolated stretch of Grande Anse beach, in the north east of the country.

They were volunteering on a wildlife conservation project run by a British-based charity when the late night incident occurred.

British High Commissioner Karl Burrows described the attack as "a dreadful crime".

He advised British visitors to the island to exercise caution as they would anywhere else, saying that crimes against British tourists were not widespread on the island.

Around 67,000 British nationals visited St Lucia last year.

Foreign Office travel advice states that most visits are trouble-free but warns that there are incidents of violent crime, including murder, which tend to occur within the local community but can sometimes affect tourists.