Police have confirmed those arrested in connection with the alleged gang-rape of a woman are not Muslim.

Responding to widespread rumours, the force says the 11 men held on suspicion of the reported attack are also all from Kent.

Earlier, officers "reassured" people that the alleged rape was an isolated incident and their major crime team is on the case.

Yesterday KentOnline broke the story of a woman in her 20s, who was allegedly sexually assaulted by seven men at Bluewater.

She is believed to have been waiting for a bus when she was bundled into a van before being subjected to an attack lasting over an hour.

Kent Police have come under a barrage of abuse on social media over the past 24 hours, with people questioning why details of such a serious assault were not made public immediately.

Police have now released some more detailed information and the time frame of the reported attack has been narrowed down to between 7pm and 8.30pm, on Mother's Day.

A spokesman for Kent Police said: "11 arrests have been made in connection with the investigation.

"All those arrested are men, aged between 16 – 22 years-old from Kent, and have been released on bail with conditions while inquiries continue.

"One suspect has already been released without charge. Inquiries are very much ongoing to establish the circumstances and no charges have been made.

"This is being treated as an isolated incident, and there are no other incidents that are being linked to this offence.

"We appreciate the public concern in relation to this incident but would like to reassure members of the public that we have made arrests, at this stage we are not looking for anyone else in connection with the case and a full investigation by our major crime team is underway.

"Work to gather evidence continues, but if anyone has any information that they have not brought to our attention we would encourage them to do so."

Kent Police have confirmed that the men have been released on bail until May 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

A spokesman for Bluewater said the site is covered by CCTV and is patrolled by security vehicles.

But when KentOnline asked police for the CCTV images the spokesman replied: "CCTV images of a vehicle or suspects were not published because through our inquiries we quickly identified the suspects that we wanted to locate and arrests were made promptly.

"When we release images as part of a public appeal it is to help us identify people but in this case we had already identified who we needed to speak to."