Six men have been arrested over the rape of a woman on a coach in northern India in an attack which has disturbing echoes of the gang-rape and murder of a student on a New Delhi bus just weeks ago.

The victim was travelling to her in-laws' home in Punjab on Friday when she was allegedly snatched and driven to a district bordering Amritsar, the Sikh holy city.

Five men joined the driver and conductor, who had taken her by motorbike to an unknown address, and took turns to rape the 29-year-old.