An Indian teenager was "punished" simply for fighting off the men who tried to attack her.

Trigger warning: This post deals with sexual assault and murder, and may be triggering for some readers.

A teenage girl has died in northern India one week after a gang of men set her on fire as punishment for resisting their attempts to molest her, police say.

The incident was the latest in India where sex attacks on women continued to occur on an almost daily basis despite an international outcry over the fatal gang-rape of a student in 2012.

Police had arrested six men over the latest attack, which occurred after the 15-year-old girl stepped outside her home in Uttar Pradesh state on November 16.

The girl’s family had told police that a gang of men dragged her back inside the house after she objected to their lewd gestures and attempts to touch her, local superintendent RK Sahu said.

The men then doused her in kerosene and set her on fire as punishment in Shahjahanpur village, 277 kilometres south-east of New Delhi, according to the family.

The girl was taken to a local hospital but died of her injuries on Sunday night, the officer said.

Police were still hunting for two more accused.

“All of them belong to the same village and are of the same caste as that of the girl,” Mr Sahu said.

India had faced intense scrutiny in recent years in the wake of a series of high-profile rapes that had unleashed a wave of public anger against the violent treatment of women.

The fatal gang-rape of a 23-year-old student on a bus in Delhi in December 2012 sparked massive street protests and led to tougher laws for sexual offenders.

But rapes routinely continued to hit the headlines across the country.

This post was originally published on ABC and has been republished with permission.

If this post brings up any issues for you, or if you just feel like you need to speak to someone, please call the NSW Rape Crisis Centre on 1800 RESPECT (1800 424 017). It doesn’t matter if you do not live in NSW, or even in Australia, they will take your call and, if need be, refer you to a service closer to home.

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