Two British women gang raped in the Caribbean

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Two British women - university students working on a wildlife conservation project - have been gang raped by six masked men on a remote beach in the Caribbean island of St Lucia, officials said.

The women - aged 31 and 24 - were reportedly armed with machetes, but were overpowered by the attackers, said the Daily Mail.

The women were camping alone on the Grand Anse beach at midnight May 10, police said.

Though seven local men were detained after the assault, they were released pending further inquiry.

The two women were taken home to Britain by their parents who flew to the Caribbean.

They told police that after a walk on the beach, when they returned to their camp they found their belongings ransacked.

They feared for their safety and began packing their equipment, when at least six men, all hiding their faces under masks, attacked them.

The women said the attackers stole some of their possessions, including mobile phones.

The volcanic island of St Lucia, a former British colony, is in the eastern Caribbean. It received 67,000 British visitors last year.