AKIPRESS.COM - A German university professor's rejection email to an Indian student's application for internship citing the "rape problem in India" as reason went viral on Sunday, sparking an online furore, reports Times of India.

By Monday afternoon, German ambassador to India Michael Steiner responded to the fast-brewing controversy, issuing a strongly worded letter to the professor, condemning her action. A subsequent apology from the Leipzig-based biochemistry professor, Dr Annette G. Beck-Sickinger, was then posted on the German embassy's website.

The professor's emails were posted anonymously as screenshots on Sunday on the social website Quora, in a post titled "What should an Indian male student do if he is denied an internship opportunity on the basis of India being projected as an unsafe country for women?"

The email as featured here read: "Dear Sir, Unfortunately I don't accept any Indian male students for internships. We hear a lot about the rape problem in India which I cannot support. I have many female students in my group, so I think this attitude is something I cannot support."

A second email featured in the Quora post quotes the professor as saying: "Many female professors in Germany decided to no longer accept Indian male students for these reasons, and currently other European female associations are joining."