CROWDS hugged police and presented them with garlands of flowers in Shadnagar in India’s Telangana state today after officers shot four suspected gang-rapists dead.

Police took four people being held on suspicion of the rape and murder of a 27-year-old veterinarian in Hyderabad to the scene of the crime at 3am this morning and shot them. They say the suspects grabbed weapons and attacked them.

Though the Congress Party has called for an investigation, the police were celebrated as heroes locally by crowds saying India’s endemic violence against women is seldom properly punished. Mass rallies had been held in Hyderabad, Mumbai and New Delhi calling for swift justice.

Delhi Commission for Women leader Swati Maliwal, who was on hunger strike demanding that the rapists be hanged, praised the police action but said she was continuing her fast to call for the execution of rapists convicted in other cases. Several hundred supporters rallied with her today, chanting: “Hang the rapists!”