Horrifying footage emerges of young women being groped by huge mob during NYE celebrations in Milan: Attacks mirror infamous Cologne 2016 sexual assaults
Horrifying footage has emerged of two young women being groped by a huge mob of men during New Year's Eve celebrations in Milan.
The attacks, reminiscent of the infamous New Year's Eve assaults in Cologne in 2016, occurred as people were partying in the city's Piazza del Duomo (Cathedral Square).
Italian police investigating the attacks carried out raids on Tuesday after 18 suspects - described as foreigners or Italians of North-African origin - were identified.
An interior ministry statement said computer material and clothing corresponding to the event were found at the homes of the two men detained in Milan and Turin.
One is accused of sexually assaulting two young women and robbing another, while the other is accused of assaulting four girls and robbing another, the statement said.
On Wednesday, Italian police detained a further two young men, also accused of sexually assaulting a number of young women during the chaos.
In the video, the two German students are shown being mobbed by a group of men against security barriers in front of the square's cathedral.
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Horrific footage has emerged of New Year's Eve celebrations in Milan which saw sex attacks on at least nine women. In the video (pictured) two women are shown being mobbed by a group of men against security barriers in front of the square's cathedralTrapped with nowhere to go, the pair are seen shouting across the barriers for help while the men grope them, tear their clothes and reportedly attempt to rape them.
Meanwhile, men in the large crowd that has formed around them are shown pushing and shoving each other to get close to the two women.
One of the victims can be seen trying to hold her coat down, while the other grips her friend's arm. Both appear to be crying as they try in vain to shove the men away.Eventually, some men appear to help the women, pushing some of the other men away while dragging the women along the barriers and out of the crowd.
After breaking free from the mob, the pair are shown being chased through the square. They finally reach a line of police officers and run behind them to safety.
At the end of the video, the students are shown trying to explain to heavily armoured police officers what had happened, before being led away by an officer.
With nowhere to go, the pair are seen shouting across the barriers for help while the men grope them, tear their clothes and reportedly attempt to rape them. Pictured: A large group of men is shown pushing up against security barriers, where the women are trapped
Pictured: One of the women cries out as the men around her grab her and her friend. Meanwhile, men in the large crowd that has formed around them are shown pushing and shoving each other to get close to the two women
Eventually, a few of the men appear to help the women, pushing some of the other men away while dragging the women along the barriers and out of the crowd (pictured)
In a separate picture from Ruptly, the women are shown after their ordeal crouching down by what appears to be a subway entrance, drinking water.
The women have been named as German students, Maria H. and Victoria Z., from Mannheim. They have since spoken out about the assault.
'We had fifteen hands on us, the attack lasted ten minutes,' one of the students told Italian media. 'The police did nothing. I hit a guy in the face - he just grinned and said he'll go on anyway.
'I was pushed to the floor, they pushed my skirt up. They tried to penetrate us with their fingers. We thought we were being raped or trampled to death,' she added.
They said that they were both wearing dresses with cycling shorts underneath, that went some way to protect them from the attempts.
'I realised they were touching me and we wanted to escape but there were too many of them,' one of the victims told ANSA in a January 7 news story.
The young German complained that while police were on duty, they did little to help and did not understand when they tried to explain what happened in English.
After breaking free from the crowd, the pair are shown being chased through the square. They finally reach a line of police officers and run behind them to safety. Pictured: The woman are shown talking to heavily armoured police officers in Milan's Piazza del Duomo
One of the young Germans complained that while police were on duty, they did little to help and did not understand when they tried to explain what happened in English
Italian police investigating the sex attacks carried out raids on Tuesday after 18 suspects were identified.
Police said they had identified 15 young men and three boys, aged 15 to 21, who were the targets of today's raids in the northern cities of Milan and Turin. The suspects were described as foreigners or Italians of North-African origin.
'The young men who sexually assaulted girls in Piazza Duomo in Milan on New Year's Eve have been identified,' said Milan police in a statement on Tuesday.
Through surveillance images, witness testimony and social media tracking, police were able to piece together 'three different episodes of violence' committed against nine young women that night, they said.
Police and prosecutors have said they were aware of three attacks on New Year's Eve in Milan's central square.
In another incident, a 19-year-old woman who was celebrating the beginning of 2022 with a friend was assaulted by a group of youths at around 01:30.
Her friend was able to escape the gang, but the teenager was attacked for more than a minute before she was helped.
Another girl was separately attacked in streets close to the piazza, the BBC said.
Italian police investigating New Year's Eve sex attacks on at least nine women in Milan have carried out raids today after 18 suspects were identified. Pictured: People light flares as they celebrate New Year's Eve in Milan's Piazza del Duomo, December 31, 2021
Italian Carabinieri officers in riot gear keep watch during New Year's Eve celebrations in Piazza del Duomo (or Cathedral Square) in Milan, northern Italy, 31 December 2021
New Year's Eve celebrations in Piazza del Duomo square (or Cathedral Square) in Milan, northern Italy, 31 December 2021
Pictured: Crowds of people gather outside Cologne Main Station in Cologne on 31 December 2015 - on a night when around 1,200 women were raped, sexually assaulted or robbed
The incident has led news headlines for days and has fed into concerns about violence against women in Italy, where newspapers report the deaths of one or two women almost every week, usually at the hands of their current or former partner.
'I hope that justice will be done and that they will soon find those who attacked us' one of the victims told ANSA.
The footage is interspersed with clips from Cologne New Year's Eve celebrations in 2016, when some 1,000 people - mainly of North African origin - carried out a series of rapes, sexual assaults and robberies.
Police in the city were also accused of failing to respond to the attacks against around 1,200 victims, with officials later speculating the attacks were organised.
The footage from 2016 shows people launching fireworks into the crowd of New Year's Eve revellers in a square.
Then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel described the attacks as 'abominable'.
By November 2016, around 200 suspects had been identified nationwide.
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