NEW DELHI, Jan 31 — The hanging of four men scheduled for tomorrow for a notorious gang-rape and murder on a Delhi bus in 2012 has been postponed "until further orders,” a court ordered today.

The brutal attack on Jyoti Singh sparked weeks of demonstrations and shone a spotlight on the alarming rates of sexual violence and the plight of women in India.

Four men were convicted in 2013 and were due to be hanged simultaneously tomorrow at 6am in India’s first execution since 2015.

A fifth, the suspected ringleader, was found dead in jail in a suspected suicide, while a 17-year-old accomplice spent three years in a juvenile detention centre.

The delay was because one of the men still has the option of a final legal appeal. Another has filed a "mercy petition” with the Indian president which is outstanding. — AFP