Two North African youths, one born to parents from Morocco and another who came to Italy from Egypt, have been arrested over alleged sex attacks on multiple women and girls on New Year’s Eve in Milan.

Italian police have arrested and identified two North African-background youths, aged 18 and 21, who they believed are connected to the sexual assaults of at least nine young women and girls in Milan’s central Piazza del Duomo on New Year’s Eve.

The first suspect, 18-year-old Mahmoud Ibrahim, lives in Milan and arrived in the country by himself two years ago from Egypt. He was identified in videos of the attacks by his winter jacket which has a bright green hood. The clothing was found in his home after a police search, Il Giornale reports.

Investigators alleged that the 18-year-old took part in both the sex attacks at the central square near Milan’s Cathedral as well as a second attack around half an hour earlier not far from the square.

Abdallah Bouguedra, 21, is the second suspect arrested by police and laws born in the city of Turin to migrant parents from Morocco. He is said to have been one of the men who sexually assaulted a pair of German girls, who later spoke out about the assaults.

“I remember turning my head quickly and seeing one hand, then the other, so many hands on my body, on my breasts, between my legs, on my butt. I don’t know how many hands I had on me, but there were many. I think it was 30 men, I don’t know maybe 50, they didn’t stop and they tore off my bra and touched my breasts. I was naked, I panicked, I tried to protect my body from all those hands,” one of the girls told Italian media.

Bouguedra is also accused of assaulting another young man, said also to have a North African background, who made an attempt to defend the two young girls from the sex assault. Like Mr Ibrahim, he was also identified by his clothing, which was found by police in his home after a search.

Both men have claimed that they are innocent of any wrongdoing and are just two of the estimated twelve under serious investigation by Italian police in Milan and Turin who carried out searches of 18 youths earlier this week.

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com