A 30-year-old man attacked a 55-year-old Swedish tourist and her husband with a large knife at the tourist resort of Thekkady in Idukki district on Saturday evening.
The attacker, Santosh, is understood to be mentally unstable. He has been arrested and remanded by a local court.
The woman, Eva Koster, suffered a deep gash under her right eye, but is now out of danger. Both she and her husband, who also suffered knife injuries, were rushed to a private hospital in Kochi.
Kerala’s Home and Tourism Minister, K. Balakrishnan, described the incident as unfortunate. “The government will bear the cost of treatment of Eva and her husband, and will also bear the expenses of their return journey,” he said.
There have been several assaults on foreigners in India in the recent past. Briton Stephen Bennett was allegedly lynched by villagers in Maharashtra, and an American tourist was molested in Mumbai earlier this week.
Last year, a German tourist was raped by a police officer’s son in Rajasthan. In 2004, Australian Dawn Emelie Griggs was raped and killed by a taxi driver in Delhi. The Swiss diplomat rape case of 2003 remains unsolved.