- Mark as New
- Bookmark
- Subscribe
- Mute
- Subscribe to RSS Feed
- Highlight
- Report Inappropriate Content
on 07-01-2016 11:20 AM
Cologne residents grapple with migrant link to shocking claims of mass sex attacks
IN COLOGNE, people are afraid. And many residents are angry.
The German city is reeling after a series of apparently co-ordinated sexual assaults on local women, allegedly committed by large groups of “Arab-looking men”.
Various reports give startling accounts of dozens of offenders surrounding victims, robbing them and in many cases sexually violating them. At least one rape has been reported.
The mass crime is alleged to have occurred on New Year’s Eve as thousands of people were drawn to year-end festivities outside the western German city’s main train station and its famous Gothic cathedral. Police were clearing the area after fireworks were thrown into the crowd — and it is while that operation was being carried out that the assaults took place.
One victim, an 18-year-old identified only as Michelle, has told N-TV in Germany about her ordeal.
The issue has been complicated by claims the police covered up the assaults to stop a hysterical public from blaming refugees. They initially didn’t give details of the incidents to media, or a description of the suspects.
That — and the failure of police to prevent the attacks — has increased pressure on the government and Chancellor Angela Merkel, who welcomed a million migrants into the country last year, many of whom were from war-torn Syria.
A policeman who was outside Cologne station during the New Year’s Eve trouble told the city’s Express news website that he had detained eight suspects. “They were all asylum seekers, carrying copies of their residence certificates,” he said.
Those comments are at odds with other official statements from police who have not publicly said if the suspects were recent arrivals or second generation immigrants.
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.
However, her response to the attacks has also come under fire. She has suggested women stay a certain distance from strangers on the street and advised women to walk in groups when they can and to avoid being targeted.
As a result many people took to social media on Wednesday under the hashtag #EineArmlaenge , German for arms length, to mock her proposal for how women should behave.
Teen victim speaks of horror after being ‘groped’ by 30 men in Cologne NYE sex attacks
