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If the incident outraged a capital, coming days after the alleged rape of a college student by the President’s Body Guards, equally shocking was the manner in which the festival’s organiser, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, was clueless.

In fact, I&B Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who was at the festival yesterday to felicitate cinema legend Liv Ullman, wasn’t even aware of the incident until late this evening. He later said that the Prime Minister had been briefed and he had ‘‘personally spoken’’ to Deputy PM L K Advani.

Also in the dark was festival director Neelam Kapur. At 8.15 pm, hours after the entire city was abuzz with reports of the incident, Kapur maintained that there was an ‘‘incident of attempted rape thwarted by her officials.’’ This was a reference to a second incident the same night involving an Indian filmmaker.

It’s learnt that the Chief of Protocol at Ministry of External Affairs was informed today by the mission about the victim leaving India. With the police still unaware about the identity of the accused, official sources said, the Swiss mission also was apparently not keen on accentuating the grief of the victim.

More so, with the developments on the case likely to dominate news coverage in the days ahead, the embassy felt that the victim will have to undergo ‘‘needless’’ mental torture. This, particularly, when there is every likelihood of the police investigations being a long drawn affair.

Officially, the Swiss embassy chose not to speak on the issue except for saying that it was a ‘‘tragic incident.’’ But having had a brush with the Indian system when a Swiss tourist was allegedly raped in Goa recently, the mission has turned very cautious.

The incident has, however, rattled the diplomatic community, most of whom said they could never imagine that going to watch a film at the festival was fraught with such dangers. ‘‘I was there a couple of days ago. The place was filled with eminent film makers, senior officials and journalists. One would believe that security at a showpiece event like this would be top grade,’’ said a senior western diplomat.

According to the diplomat, women working in most western embassies are advised not to stay out till late in the night. ‘‘But 10-30 p.m. is not very late. Most western embassies do provide chauffeurs for their women staff when they go out. Then again, this is a post 9/11 precaution and not inspired by Delhi’s crime graph.’’

There were others who while condemning the crime, said it would be unfair to term what happened as something specific to India. ‘‘The incident is truly very tragic but such a crime is prevalent in all big cities across the globe. I don’t think it would be fair to say that such a crime does not or cannot happen in Los Angeles or New York. Delhi is as safe or unsafe as any other big city in the world and we all have to be cautious of our personal security.’’

Meanwhile, the Ministry of External Affairs while condemning the incident has said it was in contact with the concerned embassy. ‘‘It is the most unfortunate incident. We have been in touch with the embassy. The matter is under investigation and naturally it is in everybody’s interest that full justice is done,’’ an MEA spokesperson said. Faced with a dwindling participation of foreign films, down to 50 from 100 last year, IFFI officials admitted that the incidents would severely mar the reputation of the festival which, as far as festivals go, is already low in the reckoning order.