1,000 men mug and sexually assault 80 women in German city on one night

German police are holding crisis talks with officials in Cologne after at least 80 women reported being sexually assaulted and mugged by gangs of men on New Year’s Eve. The scale of the incidents – said to involve perhaps as many as 1,000 men – has stunned the city and the nation. Officers received numerous complaints from women who said they had been assaulted around Cologne’s main train station next to the western German city’s famous cathedral on the night from Thursday to Friday. Police chief Wolfgang Albers said the victims described the assaults as coming from a group of men whose appearance indicated they were of “Arab or North African origin”.

…an intolerable situation that such crimes are committed in the middle of the city.

Cologne police chief Wolfgang Albers

Cologne Mayor Henriette Reker said the attacks were “monstrous”. “We cannot allow this to become a lawless area,” she said, insisting that visitors could not come to the city fearing attack. And German Justice Minister Heiko Maas tweeted that “we won’t tolerate these abhorrent assaults on women - all those responsible must be brought to justice”. There have been reports of similar mass incidents in Hamburg, which have raised concerns about how certain far right groups may react if immigrants are blamed.

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