INDIANAPOLIS, 8:34 a.m. EST August 9, 2001 -- Three sons of a babysitter have been arrested in connection with the battery and hospitalization of a toddler, police said.

Police said that the 3-year-old girl was sexually abused and bruised Tuesday while she was at the home of the babysitter. The girl was in critical but stable condition at Methodist Hospital Thursday morning, the hospital said. She arrived at the hospital Tuesday night.

She also had head injuries, for which she had surgery Tuesday night, the hospital said.

Police said that the three suspects range in age from 12 to 17. They are accused of child molestation and battery, police said.

Police said that the babysitter apparently didn't know what had happened to the girl until she found the girl to be unresponsive. The woman called an ambulance, police said.

"She was just as shocked as anyone else," Capt. Randy Hamilton of the Marion County Sheriff's Department said. "She knew that the kids were in the other room playing, and that there was some roughhousing going on, but other than that, she had no idea."

The girl's father found out that she was hurt when arrived to pick her up at her babysitter's house on Indianapolis' southwest side, police said.