Tourist jumped from Agra hotel balcony, fearful of sex attack

A BRITISH tourist who jumped 15ft off a second-floor balcony after an Indian hotel manager allegedly attempted a sex attack has told police of her ordeal. The unnamed London backpacker says she shouted for help for over an hour, fruitlessly.

The Daily Telegraph says a police officer read out the 32-year-old woman's statement to its reporter. In it, she says she was staying at the Agra Mahal hotel, near the Taj Mahal, when at 3.45am the manager knocked on her door and said he wanted to give her an oil massage and a shower.

"I refused and asked him to leave but he was insistent," the statement continues. "I had to push him out with the door, and then I bolted the door... I was too scared to leave my room as he was waiting outside. I was kicking the door and shouting for help but no one came."

Three-quarters of an hour later, the manager was still there, the woman claims, and was joined by a second man, believed to be the hotel's security guard, urging her to open the door. At 5am, the woman jumped from her balcony onto the balcony below.

She injured her leg in the 15ft drop but was still able to run. Had she misjudged the jump, she could have fallen 30ft. She ran into the street and stopped a rickshaw driver.

The manager, Sachin Johan, has been arrested along with his security guard and both face seven years in jail if convicted. He denies the charges and says he was only trying to wake the tourist for the journey she had planned to Jaipur.

Sex crime is a live issue in India. Parliament has just passed new legislation under which rape will carry a minimum sentence of 20 years following public outrage at the rape and murder of a medical student on a Delhi bus late last year.

On Monday, six men appeared in court accused of the gang rape of a Swiss cyclist in Madhya Pradesh state. ·