Image copyright AFP Chancellor Angela Merkel has expressed outrage at the sexual assault and robbery, which underwent dozens of women in Cologne on New Years Eve.
On the women attacked by drunken and aggressive a gang of hooligans, operating near the main train station in Cologne.
According to witnesses and police, the attackers, according to the appearance, were Arabs and immigrants from North African countries.
Angela Merkel called the same day the mayor of Cologne Henrietta Recker and expressed their indignation by these attacks.
She said that every effort should be to find and punish the perpetrators, regardless of their origin.
About 300 women staged a protest at the site of the attack on Tuesday evening.
The mayor Recker urged residents not draw hasty conclusions about the nature of these attacks.
“It would be absolutely wrong to link a group of men of North African origin with the newly arrived refugees,” – she said after a meeting with representatives of the police.
Chief Metropolitan Police Wolfgang Albers said the police faced a new kind of crimes and has rejected criticism of his subordinates in the New Year’s night.
These attacks were carried out in Hamburg and Stuttgart, but on a smaller scale.
In Cologne, at least one woman was raped, and many of them barely escaped from the hands of the attackers.
One of the witnesses described how his wife and 15-year-old daughter was in the midst of a huge crowd on the station square, and he could nothing to help them. According to him, the women grabbed his chest and legs and roughly fingering.
In the majority of applications submitted to the police affected women, said the robbery.
One of the policemen said in social networks, he was one of eight detained suspects. “All of them are of the number of votes for the right to asylum, with residence permits on their hands” – he wrote.
However, there was no official confirmation of the fact that acts of violence took part recently arrived to the city workers.
According to some reports, police were present at the station square, but almost did not react to the attack.
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Damien McGuinness, Bi-bi-si, Berlin
With side of the Christmas market and the medieval buildings in the center of Cologne may seem idyllic, but the townspeople know that holidays in these places, you can easily become a victim of crime.
However, until now it was limited to small thefts and robberies. News of the sexual nature of attacks shocked Germany.
Especially disturbing is the fact that these attacks seem organized. About a thousand young men arrived in the area in large groups, clearly intending to attack women.
The police in Hamburg reported similar attacks in the city center. One of the local politicians said that this is only the tip of the iceberg.
Already there are concerns about what might happen in February, when the Carnival season begins. ________________________________________
In Cologne Carnival begins in February when the city streets are filled with hundreds of thousands of drunken people.
The police are already preparing for this by installing additional video cameras.
The Mayor Recker promised to take measures to strengthen the security before the carnival. Authorities will warn young women about the possible risk.
The British woman who was staying in Cologne, said that a group of young men, not to speak in English or German, he threw toward her and her friends firecrackers and sparklers.
“They tried us to hug and kiss, my friend pulled out a bag” – she said.
“The other tried to seat us in his” private taxi. “I’ve been in different situations, often highly risky, but never experienced anything like it, “- she added.
On the website of the local newspaper Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger was reported that the suspects already known to police.
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