European investors moved to safer assets last month and deposited €15 billion ($18.6 billion) into money market funds, new figures from Morningstar show.

According to the latest Morningstar European asset data, equity funds had the greatest outflows in May, shedding €12.5 billion in investor assets, erasing the mildly positive flows during the first four months of the year.

European long-term only funds saw net outflows of €9 billion, while investors pulled €1 billion out of alternative-focused funds.

Bond funds suffered their weakest month year to date, but still benefited from May’s risk aversion, receiving nearly €5 billion in inflows.

UK investors redeemed €244 million in May, but have contributed a net €3.721 billion to long-term funds year to date. By contrast, investors in Spain pulled €2.489 billion from long-term funds from an asset base that is one-fifth the size of that of the UK.

“Market turmoil triggered real risk aversion in May, with European money flowing into money market funds and out of emerging markets stocks and bonds," said Dan Lefkovitz of Morningstar’s European research team. "Nevertheless, the flight to safety is not as pronounced as in August 2011, when European investors pulled €25 billion from the broad asset class, or September 2011, when €13 billion was redeemed. However, May’s outflows have erased what had been mildly positive flows to equity funds during the first four months of the year.”