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A wheelchair-bound woman claims she was gang-raped by a group of migrants at an asylum centre after asking to use their toilet.

The woman, in her 30s, was on the island of Gotland, just off the coast of Sweden, and was sharing a taxi home with one of the accused men from a restaurant when she needed to use the toilet.

Its is claimed she was invited to use the man's toilet at an asylum seeker centre in the medieval city of Visby but when she went in, the man allegedly followed.

According to reports in Sweden the man began assaulting the woman before four other men joined in.

Speaking to Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, the woman's lawyer said: "Where they came from we don't know. This was going on for a couple of hours.

"She got paralyzed in this situation and was not able to bring herself to resist physically, other than saying no."

(Image: Reuters)

The alleged attack sparked anger in the tiny city and Sweden was forced to draft in extra police officers to patrol the area from Stockholm.

Torbjörn Nilsson, the head of Gotland police, said: “It is to make sure that we can handle our fundamental mission as police on Gotland and to enable us to act on the incidents of the past few days.

“You have to distinguish between these past weekends and what it is like on Gotland in general.

"Gotland is safe, compared to other places, and there are few crimes compared to the rest of the country. But the way people have now acted is unprecedented.”

A number of protests also burst out after the five men were released last Wednesday when a prosecutor said there was not enough evidence to ask courts to remand them in custody.

The centre was later attacked in a sustained assault, as demonstrators threw rocks and stones at the migrant facility.

The five men, in their twenties, are still understood to be part of an ongoing investigation into the incident.