Lynch mob chop man's penis off after catching him allegedly trying to rape teenager

Angry locals came to the teenager's aid after hearing her scream, before then dragging the man to a butchers shop

An Indian man has reportedly had his penis cut off by angry locals after being caught allegedly trying to rape a teenager (Getty)

An Indian man accused of trying to rape a teenager reportedly had his penis lopped off by vigilante locals after they allegedly heard the girl’s screams.

Suresh Kumar, 40, is now recovering in hospital after he was apparently dragged into a butchers shop in the city of Ganganagar, in India’s Rajasthan state.

He had allegedly been seen pinning the petrified girl to a wall, which is when he was pulled off and taken to a store to have his genitals hacked off with a meat cleaver.

The appendage was reportedly thrown into the road, with officers now hunting down the perpetrators. He is understood to be in a critical condition, while the girl was treat for shock.

Aamir Dhawan, 30, a local, said: “No one went to help the man because they could see his penis on the ground and knew this was punishment for a sex crime,” according to the Daily Mirror.

He added: “We have had a lot of intolerable offences against women in this country recently, with girls being raped, hung, and molested, and it’s time it stopped.

“This sends out a very strong message to anyone like that - if you do it you will be punished.”

The Daily Mail reports a police spokesperson as saying: “As deplorable as these crimes are, law and order has to be maintained, and not lynch justice.

“We ask those men who carried out this attack to hand themselves in before we find them.”

The Indian government has been accused of not doing enough to protect its citizens, as violent attacks against girls and women become increasingly condemned by the international community.

Meenakshi Ganguly , South Asia Director at Human Rights Watch, wrote in the Hindustan Times in August that “knee-jerk solutions like death penalty for rapists and lowering the age of a juvenile from 18 to 16 will not help end sexual violence against women.”

She added: “Instead of hasty measures, the government should make a commitment to effective law enforcement and the more difficult and lengthy steps needed to reform the criminal justice system.”

Recent incidents include a 15-year-old teenage girl who was gang-raped and murdered in India in September, and a six-year-old girl who was raped at a school in Bangalore in July.