Germany: Protest After NYE Mass Sex Assault On 90 Women

Protesters have taken to the streets in Germany after around 90 women were sexually assaulted, robbed or threatened during New Year celebrations.

Police are investigating whether the string of sex attacks and thefts is linked to a known criminal network.

They are hunting gangs of young, mostly drunk, men suspected of carrying out the attacks - described as "a new dimension in crime" - outside Cologne's cathedral.

Cologne police chief Wolfgang Albers said officers had described the men as looking as if they were from "the Arab or North African region" and mostly between 18 and 35 years old.

He said one of the attacks could be classed as rape.

Mr Albers said said groups of 20-30 young men had surrounded victims, assaulted them and in several cases robbed them.

The police chief, who on Wednesday dismissed calls for his resignation, said he believed more victims would come forward.

The attacks occurred when around 1,000 men split into gangs as officers cleared a square to stop fireworks being thrown from steps into a crowd below.

A plain-clothes policewoman was reportedly among those attacked.

Around 150 people gathered in front of Cologne's cathedral on Tuesday evening to protest against violence against women.

One of them held a sign saying: "Ms Merkel where are you? What do you say? This scares us!"

The northern port city of Hamburg said it had received 27 reports of similar attacks at New Year's street parties.

Angela Merkel has expressed her shock over the attacks, while politicians including Cologne mayor Henriette Reker urged Germans not to put foreigners and refugees under "blanket suspicion".

But the incident has fuelled calls from right-wing groups to shut down migration to Germany, which has taken in more than a million people in the last year, mostly from Middle Eastern war zones.

The right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has gained in polls following a campaign against refugees, said Mrs Merkel should close the border.

AfD leader Frauke Petry tweeted: "Mrs Merkel, is Germany 'colourful and cosmopolitan' enough for you after the wave of crimes and sexual attacks?"

Merkel told Reker in a phone call the attacks deserved a tough response.

"Everything must be done to investigate those responsible as quickly and completely as possible and punish them, regardless of where they are from," she said, according to her spokesman.

Meanwhile in Brussels, EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos was hosting an emergency meeting of ministers from Sweden, Denmark and Germany amid concerns for the Schengen passport-free zone after Stockholm and Copenhagen this week tightened their border controls due to the migrant crisis.

- SkyNews