The boy and girl's parents were among those arrested.

The brutal deaths highlight the problems of the rigid caste system in India.

The couple, 19-year-old Vishal and Sonu, who was 18, were hanged one after another from the roof of a house in their home village in the Muzafarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh.

Their crime - to fall in love and come from different castes.

Rigid system

Vishal was a high-caste Brahmin and Sonu was a member of the lower caste Jat community.

Hundreds watched as the couple died.

The police have arrested their parents and other close family members and according to police reports, the entire village had been opposed to their relationship.

Caste - a complex system of social stratification with its origins in Hinduism - is very rigidly observed in parts of Uttar Pradesh, and the deaths of these two young people emphasises the huge divisions in Indian society.

But India has refused to allow the caste system to be included in discussions about racial discrimination at a United Nations conference on race and xenophobia in South Africa at the end of the month.

The Indian Government claims that the caste system is based on social rather than biological differences and therefore does not fall under the ambit of racial discrimination and intolerance.