Lonely Indian men are so desperate to find girlfriends they are resorting to calling random phone numbers in the hope of striking up a relationship with a potential future wife.

The ‘phone Romeos’ have become a scourge in India and neighbouring Bangladesh.
Julia Qermezi Huang, an anthologist at the London School of Economics, said: ‘It’s a new thing. It’s covert, it’s risky, it’s experimenting with that outside world which they don’t have much access to.’

Police in the city of Lucknow have set up a special call centre to handle complaints from victims.