Police in Germany say they have disproved allegations they covered up a 13-year-old girl’s gang-rape by asylum seekers in Berlin.

The teenager disappeared on her way to school in the suburb of Marzahn-Hellersdorf on 11 January and re-appeared the following day.

A missing person’s appeal was cancelled but the case became the subject of conspiracy theory claims days later when Russian media reported that she had been imprisoned for 30 hours and raped by migrants.

Berlin police said there was no evidence of the girl being kidnapped or forced to have sex (Getty Images)

Relatives of child, who The Independent is choosing not to name, spoke to anti-immigration rallies to allege three “southern-looking” foreign men who spoke broken German kidnapped and abused her.

But on Friday, prosecutors in Berlin announced that mobile phone tracking data disproved the account.

“We were able to access information about a young German man aged 19 - an acquaintance of the 13-year-old girl,” spokesperson Martin Steltner told AFP.

“The young girl wanted to hide at his house because she was having problems in school.”

The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, stepped into the row earlier this week (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)

Although no evidence of forced sexual relations were found, prosecutors opened an investigation into possible statutory rape charges because the girl is under the age of consent, which is 14 in Germany.

Mr Steltner said that investigators now believe that she had had sex with two men in their 20s, “a Turkish citizen and a German of Turkish origin” who may now be charged.

Police had initially said there was no evidence of a crime and appealed for people to “handle the subject sensitively” on social media as conspiracy theories spread, with videos and Facebook posts being viewed millions of times.

Interest spiked after Russia’s state-owned Channel One television broadcast an interview with a woman identifying herself as the girl’s aunt, claiming police had orchestrated a cover-up and tried to silence the Russian family.

Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Show all 13 1 /13 Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Women protest against sexism outside Cologne Cathedral on 5 January after the assaults Oliver Berg/EPA Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Women protest against sexism in Cologne following the rash of sex attacks on New Year's Eve Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Police initially failed to mention the assaults in report the following morning EPA Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Police officers patrol in front of the main station of Cologne, Germany AP Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks German far-right supporters demonstrate at Cologne`s train station (Reuters) Reuters Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Supporters of anti-immigration right-wing movement Pegida in Cologne, Germany, January 9, 2016. Reuters Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Police used pepper spray to control supporters of Pegida, Hogesa (Hooligans against Salafists) and other right-wing populist groups as they protested against the New Year's Eve sex attacks on 9 January, 2016 in Cologne, Germany Reuters Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Police use a water cannon during a protest march by supporters of anti-immigration right-wing movement Pegida in Cologne, Germany, January 9, 2016 Reuters Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Police use pepper spray against supporters of anti-immigration right-wing movement Pegida, in Cologne, Germany, January 9, 2016. Reuters Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Artist Mira Moiré protests naked in Cologne against the mass sex attacks on New Year's Eve AP Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks A demonstrator holds a sign in German that reads 'No violence against women' during a demonstration in the wake of the sexual assaults on New Year's Eve, outside the cathedeal in Cologne, Germany, 09 January 2016. EPA Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Counter demonstrators hold up a sign reading "Against sexism, against racism" as they protest against a demonstration of the islamophobic movement PEGIDA at the train station in Cologne, Germany, on January 9, 2016. AFP/Getty Images Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Demonstration by a women’s group on Saturday (AP) AP

Far-right groups in Germany and around the world seized on the rumours to argue for an immediate halt to migration, as anger continued over the sexual assaults in Cologne.

Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, stepped into the row earlier this week by accusing Germany of “covering up the reality for some domestic politically-correct reason“.

His German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier accused Russia in turn of exploiting the case for ”political propaganda“ and to influence a debate about immigration to Germany, which registered 1.1 million asylum seekers in 2015.

Frank Henkel, Berlin’s interior senator, said he hoped investigators’ findings would “defuse the propaganda that had developed recently around this case” and said that Germany would uphold the rule of law in the face of “political pressure from abroad”.

