To many on the tiny German island of Borkum, the Christmas festival of Klaasohm is a harmless nod to their pagan roots.

But the annual chasing of womenfolk down the streets with cow horns is facing cancellation after a television expose revealed violent beatings.

Borkum Lads Club, which has organised the festivities since the 1830s on the North Sea Frisian island, was forced to apologise for “historical actions of past years” and said it distanced itself from “any form of violence against women”.

During the festival, six members of the club - who have to be unmarried men born in Borkum with at least one island-born parent - dress up as the “Klaasohm” monster wearing woolen costumes and rampage through the town to hunt women.

The members are then tasked with beating the women’s backsides with a bull’s horn, all while being accompanied by a man in milkmaid-style clothes known as the Wiefke.

Certain villagers known as “catchers” help with the hunt, finding women and holding them until the Klaasohms come and beat them one-by-one as villagers look on. The women are then given a gingerbread cake afterwards.

The festivities are linked to 17th and 18th century fishing seasons when the men would leave the women to run the island while they were at sea. When they came back they would run amok to “take back their island”.

However, a German Panorama documentary has exposed some of the harsh beatings and suffering that play out among the festive reenactments.