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A total of 16 sexual assaults have been reported at New Year's Eve celebrations across Austria, including 11 incidents in the city of Innsbruck in Tyrol, The Local reported.

Eleven women, from Tyrol, Vorarlberg, Italy, Germany and Switzerland, told police that they were harassed and groped by a group of men in and around Innsbruck’s Marktplatz, where public Silvester celebrations were taking place.

A police spokesman told the ORF broadcaster that the allegations are being investigated, and that police are waiting to view video and mobile phone footage from that night - some of which was filmed by the organizers of the event.

The women all said that they were assaulted by a group of dark-haired men who appeared to be under the age of 30, and that most of them had beards.

A police spokesman said it's likely that it was one group of men who harassed the various women, and that the men “had a system”. They targeted women who had become separated from their friends or a larger group of people, or were dancing by themselves. Most of the assaults happened between 11.30pm and 1.30am in Marktplatz, when the noise and excitement was at a peak.

Austrian police distributed thousands of rape alarms on New Year's Eve to help prevent incidents like the mass sex assaults in neighboring Germany a year ago.