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Raped after going to urinate in bushes … The tourist was at Oktoberfest festival at the Theresienwiese in Munich. Picture: Christof Stache
Source: AFP

Munich’s 181st Oktoberfest starts with the traditional tapping of the first beer from the first keg. Tara Cleary reports.

A MALE tourist has been raped after going to urinate in bushes at the Oktoberfest beer festival in Munich.

The 24-year-old from Leeds in England was at the edge of the festival arena at Theresienwiese in the Munich borough of Ludwigsvorstadt-Isarvorstadt when he was sexually assaulted.

Bavaria Police said in a statement that the tourist was approached by a stranger, who “made it clear he wanted to have sex with him”.

The victim refused. Immediately his head was jolted back and he was dragged to the ground, where a second man held him down while he was raped.

The two men ran off after the incident.

There are 1500 toilets at the Oktoberfest festival and a kilometre of urinals but the numbers often prove insufficient for drinkers and many go to the outskirts of the fields to relieve themselves, The Independent reported.

Despite the attack and several other violent incidents at Oktoberfest, include an attempted rape of a woman, several other sexual assaults and brawls, police said crime is down so far compared to last year.

Crime rate fallen this year … Members of a brass musician band and a local costume group dressed in typical Bavarian clothes wait beside the ferris wheel at the traditional Bavarian Oktoberfest festival at the Theresienwiese in Munich. Picture; Christof Stache
Source: AFP

By Saturday, there had been 3.3 million visitors and 670 reported crimes — down 20 per cent on last year.

Most offences were pickpocketing and assaults, including several drunken fights, the newspaper reported.

On Thursday, an American soldier visiting Oktoberfest was shot by German police after threatening staff and patients with a fire extinguisher at a hospital in Munich.

He had reportedly woken up drunk while being treated for a head wound and refused demands to put down the weapon.

The police use of firearms is being investigated by German authorities.