220,000 FRENCH WOMEN SEXUALLY HARASSED

More than 220,000 women were sexually harassed  on public transport in France over two years, the national crime statistics agency said in its first report-

On the subject,  describing it as a  ''conservative estimate''.

France's National Observatory of Crime and Criminal Justice [ONDRP] found that  267,000  people  -85 per cent of whom were women  -were sexually harassed on public transport between 2014 and 2015, including kissing, groping, flashing and rape.

It is    the first time ONDRP,   which publishes an annual survey on insecurity, focused on sexual harassment on public transport.

PARIS was voted the  third most  woman friendly city in a Thomson Reuters Foundation survey published in October, and ranked fourth least risky for sexual violence.

But harassment remains prevalent, many said on social media.

'' I was spat at, called a whore.......and one morning was grouped two laughing men on a crowded metro.'' Siobhan Dowling said on a Twitter, describing her time in Paris as a student.

''The level of everyday harassment was shocking.''

Sexual harassment on public transport was worst for women in Paris, with reports of incidents seven times higher than in the rest of France, the study found.

Most cases occurred when a train or a bus was moving so victims could not flee, the study said.

''When you have closed spaces with hundreds and thousands of people and zero security agents or police, it's no wonder that cowardly perpetrators act in total impunity,'' Ikram Moustaoui said on Facebook.

French women have taken to social media to share tales of sexual harassment, outstripping the  hashtagMeToo campaign with a name-and-shame hashtag BalanceTonPorc or ''expose your pig''.

French President Emmanuel Macron unveiled measures last month aimed at educating the public and schoolchildren about sexism and violence against women and improving police support for victims.

He proposed criminalising street harassment.