Cologne attackers were of migrant origin — minister

The men suspected of attacking women in Cologne on New Year's Eve were "almost exclusively" from a migration background, mainly North African and Arab, an official report says.

Cologne police also made "serious mistakes" in not calling reinforcements and the way they informed the public.

More than 500 criminal complaints were filed, 40% alleging sexual assault.
Apparent retaliatory attacks in Cologne on Sunday were condemned by the government as inexcusable. The Pope meanwhile said Europe's "humanistic spirit" risked being undermined.

The "immense influx" of migrants was causing problems, he said, but the continent had the means to strike a balance between protecting its citizens and helping migrants.

North Rhine-Westphalia state's interior minister Ralf Jaeger said that recent arrivals in Germany were among the suspects in the attacks, which took place in central Cologne, in the area of the cathedral and the main railway station.

The scale of the assaults has shocked Germany

Nineteen individuals are currently under investigation by the state police in connection with the attacks, NRW's interior ministry says in a report (in German), none of them German nationals.

Those 19 suspects include 14 men from Morocco and Algeria. Ten of the suspects are asylum seekers, nine of whom arrived in Germany after September 2015.

The other nine are possibly in Germany illegally, the interior ministry says.The scale of the assaults on women in Cologne and other German cities has shocked Germany.

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