Germany blames migrants for sex attacks

German authorities said Monday that nearly all the suspects in a rash of New Year’s Eve violence against women in Cologne were “of foreign origin”, as foreigners came under attack amid surging tensions.

Ralf Jaeger, the interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia state, released initial findings of a criminal probe ov-er the crime spree that has piled pressure on Chancellor Angela Mer-kel over her liberal sta-nce towards refugees.

“Witness accounts and the report by the (local) police as well as findings by the federal police indicate that nearly all the people who committed these crimes were of foreign origin,” he said.

Although no formal charges have been laid, Mr Jaeger said the attackers emerged from a group of more than 1,000 “Arab and North African” men who gathered between the main railway station and the city’s iconic Gothic cathedral during the year-end festivities.

In the face of outrage over the New Year’s Eve violence, Ms Merkel has taken a tough line agai-nst convicted refugees.

She has signalled her backing for changes to the law to ease expulsion rules, with officials within her ruling coalition expected to swiftly negotiate the proposals this week.

The police said late on Sunday that more than a week on from New Year’s Eve, some 516 co-mplaints had now been lodged, including 40 per cent that are related to sexual assault.

Witnesses described terrifying scenes of hundreds of women running a gauntlet of groping hands, lewd insults and robberies in the mob violence.

The scale of the Cologne assaults has shocked Germany and put a spotlight on the 1.1 million asylum seekers who arrived in the country last year.

It has also fuelled fear, with a poll published by the Bild am Sonntag newspaper saying that 39 per cent of those surveyed felt the police did not provide sufficient protection for the public at large, while 57 per cent did.

And just under half (49 per cent) believed the same sort of mob violence could hit their hometown, reported the newspaper which headlined its article with the question: “Is the New Year’s Eve scandal the result of wrong policies ”

A separate poll by broadcaster RTL found that 57 per cent of Germans feared crime would rise along with the record influx of asylum seekers, while 40 per cent disagreed.

Nevertheless a majority — 60 per cent — said their opinion of foreig-ners has not changed, while 37 per cent said they have become more critical and negative ab-out newcomers.

Justice minister Heiko Maas has said he believed the violence in the western city of Cologne was organised.

“For such a horde of people to meet and commit such crimes, it has to have been planned somehow,” he told Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

“No one can tell me that this was not coordinated or planned. The suspicion is that a specific date and an expected crowd was picked,” he said.

Quoting confidential police reports, Bild am Sonntag said some North Africans had sent out calls using social networks for people to gather in Cologne on New Year’s Eve.