A man was killed, and an Israeli female tourist along with an Indian woman was gang-raped by three men in a violent assault near a popular UNESCO World Heritage site in southern India late Thursday, local police confirmed on Saturday.

The Indian man and the two women were stargazing with two other male tourists in the town of Hampi when the attackers launched their assault after a dispute over money, according to police superintendent Ram Arasiddi, speaking to news reporters by phone.

The assailants pushed the men into a river canal before raping the women, he said. Two of the men, including an American, survived, and the third man's body was recovered on Saturday morning.

Police have arrested two of the men accused of the attack and were carrying out further investigations, Arasiddi said.

Attacks on women in India gained international attention last year after the brutal rape-homicide of a junior doctor at a hospital in the eastern city of Kolkata, sparking national outrage and protests over a lack of safety for women.