( L - R ) George Messer, Frankie Brewster, Bobby Brewster , Karen Burton, Alisha Burton, Danny Combs

CHARLESTON, West Virginia (AP):

Authorities said yesterday they are considering hate crime charges in the case of a black woman who was tortured by six whites while being held captive for at least a week.

The six people, who included a mother and son and a mother and daughter, were arrested in connection with the alleged abduction of the 23-year-old woman, Megan Williams.

Williams underwent surgery after being rescued by police.

The woman's abductors used a racial slur reserved for blacks "every time they stabbed her," mother Carmen Williams told The Charleston Gazette.

Besides being sexually assaulted, the woman had been stabbed four times in the left leg and beaten, Porter said. Her eyes were black and blue. She was also forced to eat rat and dog faeces and drink from a toilet, according to the criminal complaint filed in the magistrate court. She also had been choked with a cord, it alleges.

Deputies say the woman was also doused with hot water while being sexually assaulted.