NEW DELHI: India on Friday summoned the US ambassador to New Delhi to protest the detention of one of its senior diplomats in New York, the foreign ministry said.

“She (Ambassador Nancy Powell) has already been summoned by the Foreign Secretary (Sujatha Singh),” ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin told AFP.

The move comes after the Indian embassy in Washington said its deputy consul general in New York was taken into custody on Thursday while she was dropping her daughter off at school.