Doctors in India have begun a national strike, escalating the protest against the rape and murder of a female colleague in the West Bengal city of Kolkata.

The Indian Medical Association (IMA), the country’s largest grouping of doctors, said all non-essential hospital services would be shut down across the country on Saturday.

The IMA described last week’s killing as a “crime of barbaric scale due to the lack of safe spaces for women” and asked for the country’s support in its “struggle for justice”.

Protests against the attack and calling for the better protection of women have intensified in recent days after a mob vandalised the hospital where it happened.