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Speaking at a music industry event in Linköping on Thursday, Anders Ygeman said he did not believe there had been a surge of assaults in Sweden, it just appeared to be more frequent now because it is on the agenda.

The interior minister said: “Sex attacks at festivals are in my view less common now than 20 years ago, but we talk more about it now.”

Swedish police came under fire in January last year after it took nearly six months for the force to confirm a number of teenage girls had reportedly been assaulted by foreigners at the We Are Sthlm festival.

As the music event was hosted in August 2015, public outrage spread as reports surfaced where it was claimed a gang of youths, reportedly mostly from Afghanistan, groped and molested girls as young as 11 and 12.