The youths, aged 13 to 15, allegedly attacked their victim as she walked home from school in the Charlottenburg district which is generally seen as safe area with low crime rates.

While allegedly gang-raping the girl, the youths are reported to have filmed the sexual attack with a mobile phone camera. Media reports say the four later boasted about the rape to other school children and sent copies of the video to friends.

Police who detained the four earlier this week have so far not found any film footage of the alleged rape. There is suspicion the video pictures may have been erased and mobile phones of the suspects are being analysed by experts in a bid to retrieve any pictures.

“This brutal rape has shocked Germany,” said a commentary in Berlin’s B.Z. newspaper.
Adding to the potential explosiveness of the alleged rape is the fact that the four suspects are all the children of immigrant families, while the victim is German.

The normally well-informed Bild tabloid said the suspects were two German-Turks, a German Russian and a German-Angolan

Last year the city was witness to the horrifying murder of a seven-year-old child who was beaten to death by a 17-year-old who said he carried out the crime due to “boredom”.

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