Sex assault claim at Facebook party

POLICE are investigating an alleged sexual assault on a 17-year-old Irish student during a large open-air party in Montpellier at the weekend.

Two young men were arrested at the apéro géant on Friday night but later released without charge because of a lack of immediate evidence.

The girl was part of a group of 15 students visiting Montpellier on a language exchange programme.

She is reported to have lost her friends in the crowd and was approached and blocked by two men while a third man assaulted her at about 23.30 on Friday night. She managed to run away and alert police.

Montpellier public prosecutor Patrick Desjardins said the case was being taken seriously and that further investigations were needed.

More than 5,000 people took part in the Montpellier apéro géant on the Esplanade de l'Europe (pictured), an unofficial party organised through Facebook.

It is a popular trend in France that has seen hundreds of apéros géants organised through Facebook in towns and cities since the first one in Calvados, Normandy, in March 2009.

Some 150 police officers, gendarmes and paramedics were watching over the Montpellier event. About a dozen people were treated for alcohol poisoning.

Photo: Stefan/Flickr