A report has found that at least 132 children in Birmingham have been victims of sexual exploitation or are "vulnerable" to it.

The city's council carried out a year-long investigation into child sex abuse amid fears that grooming rings like those uncovered in Oxford and Derby could be operating in the area.

They found that teenage girls who are in care are most at risk of sexual exploitation, while some girls said they were raped as part of gang initiation ceremonies.

The report, entitled We Need to Get it Right, highlighted 83 children who are most at most risk of sexual exploitation - 80 girls and just three boys.

Of these, one is under 13 years old, 57 are aged 14 to 16, and 25 are 17 or older.

While child sex exploitation scandals in Rotherham and Rochdale overwhelmingly involved men of Asian origin preying on white girls, officials said they did not see the same pattern in Birmingham.

Around half - 39 - of children who are most at risk of child sexual exploitation in the city are white British, while 40 are from black and minority ethnic groups and 44 are in care, according to the report's figures, which were collected in September.

Anita Ward, chairwoman of the Education and Vulnerable Children Overview and Scrutiny Committee, said the council was spurred to launch the investigation following child sex scandals across the country.

In the report she said: "For far too long, child sexual exploitation (CSE) was a hidden issue, but following the recent number of high profile cases across the country the problem has been exposed and we can no longer pretend that it does not exist within our society."

She said that "having concluded that if it was happening in areas like Derby, Oxford, Telford and Rochdale, it was in all likelihood happening in Birmingham".

The report's authors described the abuse they were told about as "harrowing" and said that some children are being let down by "failures" in the safeguarding services that are meant to protect them.

In one case highlighted in the report, a 15 year-old girl was raped by three men in a local park who filmed her ordeal, but when she tried to speak out no-one believed her because she was seen as a "troublemaker" at school.

Her rapists began plying her with drugs, alcohol and money and groomed her so she began to see them as her friends.

But they continued to rape and physically attack her, and she lived in fear that the men would kill her family.

The report's authors said this case is far from unique, and that young victims of sexual exploitation are "imprisoned" psychologically by their abusers They said: "Such imprisonment is not always caused by a locked door, but by the terror of possible retribution, or just because they still think their so called boyfriend/girlfriend 'still loves them'.

"We heard of many cases where lives have been put back on track due to timely interventions and we also heard of many examples of, at best, frustration with the systems in place, and at worst failure of procedures, multi-agency working or a lack of resources.

"The committee feels that whether or not these were isolated incidents or indications of broader systemic failure, leaving one child vulnerable is one child too many."

They added: "This report should act as a wake-up call as it is important for everyone to understand that CSE is occurring in Birmingham and can occur within any part of the city or community and to boys as well as girls."