A middle-aged woman was allegedly gang-raped and murdered at Jagannathpur in West Bengal's North 24-Parganas district on a day the nation was mourning the tragic death of the Delhi rape victim.

Additional Superintendent of Police Bhaskar Mukherjee said that the woman's son, Alafaz Ali, had filed an FIR last night at Barasat police station stating that his mother\ was gang-raped and murdered and his father was poisoned and seriously injured.

Mukherjee said the body of the 45-year old woman was found near a brick kiln on Saturday evening bearing sharp wounds on the head.

The incident occurred when the woman went to look for her husband, a brick-kiln worker last evening. Six persons allegedly assaulted her, Mukherjee said.

Meanwhile, her husband returned home and went to look for his wife when he heard her cry for help and was in turn assaulted and forcibly made to consume some poisonous substance, he said.

The victim and her husband were rushed to Barasat State General hospital where the woman succumbed.

The body has been sent for postmortem.

The husband was shifted to R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata where his condition was stated to be better, police said.

Police arrested one person today and detained eight others for interrogation.

Police are conducting raids in the area to bring the culprits to book.