Cairo (CNN) -- Amid the celebrations that greeted the declaration of a winner in Egypt's first freely elected presidential vote, a British student journalist was being sexually assaulted by a mob in Tahrir Square. Natasha Smith recounted the experience on her blog and in an interview with CNN. Smith, who has since left Egypt, wrote that the moving demonstrations of freedom turned to horror "in a split second" when dozens of frenzied men dragged her away from two male companions and began to grope her "with increasing force and aggression." "Men started ripping off all my clothes," she told CNN. "First of all, it was my skirt, and that just went straight away, and I didn't even feel my underwear being removed. Then my shoes went and clothes on my upper half were just being ripped off me, and that was quite painful."
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British reporter Natasha Smith recounts attack in Tahrir Square
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Smith says she was mobbed by men who "started ripping off all my clothes"
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"There were several moments at which I thought she was going to die," a friend says
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Egyptians stepped in to protect her and helped her escape, she says
Natasha Smith
Smith
Natasha Smith
Smith
"And I think that really the fact that we are still alive, and especially @placeholder's still alive, was because there were so many people who were willing to help us and were willing to risk their own lives and put them in direct danger to get her out of that situation."
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Egypt
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But from the very beginning, I don't blame @placeholder for this.
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British
Smith said her case will get attention "because I'm @placeholder and I'm young and I'm a girl," but she said other Egyptian women "will often suffer these attacks and worse attacks and there'll be no justice done."