Just three of the 58 suspects arrested in connection with the mass sex attack on women in Cologne on New Year’s Eve were refugees, it has been reported.
Refugees were blamed for more than 1,000 reports of theft, sex assault and rape of women at Cologne’s central train station - leading to a hardening of attitudes towards Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open door policy on refugees.
But of those arrested only three - two Syrians and an Iraqi - had recently arrived in Germany.
The majority of the suspects were of Algerian, Tunisian or Moroccan origin and three were German citizens, according to Cologne public prosecutor Ulrich Bremer.
Speaking to German newspaper Die Welt, he also said that of 1,054 complaints received 600 were connected to theft rather than a sexual offence.
Despite this Cologne’s newly installed police chief Jurgen Mathies said the technique of hemming women in and cutting them off from their friends did appear to have come from countries where “they might be familiar with this behaviour”.
He said he had never seen it in Germany before.
He said there was no evidence the attacks were premeditated and believes it was “transmitted through social networks".
“A few people did in fact say, ‘hey, we’re going to Cologne, there’s going to be a big party’”, he explained.
Despite this, German far right groups have capitalised on increased feelings of mistrust towards refugees with Pegida using the attacks to stage mass anti-immigration marches through Europe.
Germany has seen a spike in racially motivated arson attacks on refugees’ homes since the incident with vigilante gangs threatening to “clean up” Cologne.
The increased animosity has forced Ms Merkel to scale back her welcome towards refugees - in late January she agreed a deal with her coalition partners to speed up deportations of failed asylum seekers and restrict family reunions for people granted partial protection.
It comes as the police reported 22 cases of sexual assault at the Cologne carnival - including a Belgian TV reporter who was groped live on air by man who appeared to be of European descent.
