DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (AFP) — Tanzanian police said Friday they have arrested four suspects over a gang rape of a girl that was filmed and posted online in a video that went viral.

Rights groups have voiced outrage over the assault and the graphic video and demanded that the perpetrators are caught and face justice.

“We have arrested four people who planned and committed the violence,” Tanzania police spokesman David Misime said in a statement.

“Our investigation is ongoing as we also continue to hunt two more suspects who are still in hiding,” he added.

Police had tracked down the raped girl, Misime said, “and currently she is receiving necessary support services, including psychological counselling, in a safe place”.

The incident first came to light when Boniface Jacob, the former mayor of Ubungo, a district of the commercial capital Dar es Salaam, posted about it on X on August 4, tagging President Samia Suluhu Hassan and the national police force.

He said the assailants were believed to be members of the Tanzanian armed forces, but this could not be verified.

Misime said several other people had also been arrested for spreading the video or posting false information over the incident, including saying that the victim and her mother had died.

After the video emerged, police had urged the public to remain calm and to consider what they post online.

Msichana Initiative, an organisation which advocates for the rights of girls in Tanzania, earlier this week urged the police to take action over what it described as “brutal acts”.

“We also strongly condemn the continued circulation of the videos which continue to humiliate the girl,” it said.

In 2019 a number of men were arrested in the northeast of the country following a string of gang rapes, local media reported.