Mob assaults Swiss couple in Agra; Sushma Swaraj asks Yogi govt for report

New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has sought a report from the Yogi Adityanath's government on the alleged attack on a young Swiss couple at Faterhpur Sikri in Agra, Uttar Pradesh.

Swaraj said her officers will contact the couple, who is in a hospital in Delhi. They were chased and attacked with stones and sticks by a group of men near Fatehpur Sikri railway station on Sunday.

Quentin Jeremy Clerc, 24, who came to India on September 30 with his girlfriend Marie Droz, also 24 were left bruised after the attack.

The couple said they were strolling near the railway station at Fatehpur Sikri after a day in Agra when the group started chasing them.

"They initially passed comments, which we didn't understand, and then forced us to stop so they could take selfies with Marie," Quentin Jeremy Clerc told ToI.

The harassment soon turned into an attack so brutal that it left Clerc with a fractured skull and a clot in his brain. Doctors attending to him said a blow that struck one of his ears has caused hearing impairment. Droz has a broken arm and multiple bruises.

The couple said as they lay on the ground bloodied and bruised, bystanders began taking videos of them on their mobile phones.

Recounting the horror, Clerc said, "The boys wouldn't stop walking along despite our protests. All the while they kept taking pictures and trying to get close to Marie. From whatever little we could understand, they were asking our names and the place where we had put up in Agra. They were harassing us. They asked us to accompany them to some place, which we refused to. A little after stones and sticks began to rain on me. When Marie intervened, she, too, wasn't spared."

Droz said she first thought the boys "won't hit a woman".

She was wrong. "They hurled stones at both of us. I was hit on the back, shoulder and hand. I still cannot understand why they attacked us. They didn't take any of our valuables."