Two young Brits were allegedly caught up in the swathe of harrowing sexual assault attacks on tourists marking New Year’s Eve in Milan.
The British couple were said to have been with six young Belgian students when they were allegedly attacked by a mob of young men.
Italian police are investigating claims brought by the couple and the students that they were surrounded by dozens of men and groped.
The students had gathered to watch the fireworks on the Piazza del Duomo, outside Milan’s cathedral, where men in balaclavas were filmed shooting fireworks into the crowd.
They said they felt unsafe and tried to leave, but were suddenly confronted by a mob of 30 to 40 men shouting ‘vaffanculo Italia’ (f*** you Italy) ‘polizia di merda’ (‘s*** police’).
‘That’s when we were touched on our bodies, on our clothes and some of us, including myself, inside our clothes,’ one of the students, Laura, recounted to Belgian media.
‘Three out of us four girls were sexually assaulted. A friend had her breasts groped and her buttocks touched. [The men] put their hands in my pants. It went very far.’
Belgian outlet Sudinfo reports that the group were joined by an English man and woman who joined them in filing a formal complaint.
The story is reminiscent of the horrifying mass assaults in Cologne on New Year’s Eve 2015-16, when hundreds of women were sexually assaulted, harassed, and robbed during celebrations near the city’s main train station and iconic cathedral.
Laura Barbier (right), 20, a student from Liege, in Belgium, had travelled to Milan, Italy , with five friends aged between 20 and 21 to celebrate the New Year
Footage from New Year’s Eve of the Piazza del Duomo shows chaotic scenes
The group of students watched the fireworks on the Piazza del Duomo outside Milan’s cathedral, where men wearing balaclavas were filmed causing chaotic scenes by shooting fireworks into the crowd on the same night
Belgian outlet Sudinfo reported on Friday that the two British nationals, ‘a girl and her boyfriend’, met the six young travellers from Liege in Milan on the afternoon of December 31.
They then reportedly decided to stick together and travelled to the Piazza del Duomo to bring in the new year.
The students claimed they were assaulted by a group of men between the ages of 20 and 40 years old.
‘The boys tried to defend us, but they couldn’t do anything,’ 20-year-old Laura recounted.
‘There were so many people around us that we couldn’t move.’
After witnessing the alleged attacks, the British couple ‘then went to the police and filed a complaint’.
Milan prosecutors have since opened an investigation into allegations that the young Belgians were sexually assaulted by men only identified as being from North Africa, Italian news agency ANSA reports.
!['Three out of us four girls were sexually assaulted. A friend had her breasts groped and her buttocks touched. [The men] put their hands in my pants. It went very far,' Laura (pictured) told Belgian broadcaster RTL](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/14/10/93879873-14282097-_Three_out_of_us_four_girls_were_sexually_assaulted_A_friend_had-a-28_1736851698842.jpg)
‘Three out of us four girls were sexually assaulted. A friend had her breasts groped and her buttocks touched. [The men] put their hands in my pants. It went very far,’ Laura (pictured) told Belgian broadcaster RTL
But Laura claimed that when she and her friends went to the local police to report the attacks, they were told that ‘it would be useless’ before being sent away.
Investigators will now try to understand whether the British victims were assaulted by the same people or whether the attacks occurred at a different time, Fanpage reports.
Laura, who has since been receiving psychological counselling over her ordeal at a hospital back in Belgium, said she wanted to speak up to stop similar attacks from happening to other young women.
She told RTL: ‘I can’t let this happen like this. I thought it only happened in the movies. I can’t keep quiet.’
Investigators now believe the testimony is ‘detailed and credible’, according to Sudinfo.
France advises reporting sexual harassment by phone or to the police at a station.
The attack has been compared to the scenes from New Year’s Eve in the German city of Cologne at the end of 2015 when women reported being sexually assaulted and harassed during celebrations near the cathedral.
The situation caused particular outrage after Cologne police insisted that there had been no significant problems, before the real scale of the attacks was revealed in local media reports.
Over 1,200 criminal complaints were filed, including over 500 allegations of sexual assault.
The attacks in Germany were reportedly carried out by large groups of men described as predominantly of North African and Arab descent.
