POLICE have released images of people who may help bring to book those involved in the public groping of two teenagers at the Noord Street taxi rank late last year.

The series of photographs - although grainy and showing either suspects or spectators - show a number of men surrounding the young women who were harassed, groped and insulted at the infamous taxi rank.

However, there is a snag: Police told Sowetan that they were unable to develop the photographs "any further" and needed the public to help identify suspects responsible for the treatment meted out to the girls.

The images in Sowetan's possession were taken from CCTV footage that captured the two girls' ordeal which was a result of one of them wearing a miniskirt.

Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said police could not say with certainty that the men in the photographs were suspects wanted in connection with the incident.

"If we arrest somebody through investigations, we would then hold an identity parade.

"We don't know if the people in the images are suspects or onlookers," he said.

Dlamini also said identifying the culprits would have been made easier had CCTV operators realised the seriousness of the incident and zoomed into the faces of the men responsible for the attacks.

Although police had not identified any suspect, Dlamini said "we are doing our best" to find those responsible.

Asked where police were searching for the suspects, Dlamini said: "Noord [Street taxi rank] is our starting point but we are using informers, so our search could stretch to other areas."

Early this month, the two teenagers, aged 18 and 19, laid charges of indecent assault, crimen injuria and sexual harassment against the men who harassed them at Johannesburg Central police station.