News / Germany

Germany arrests first Cologne sex assaults suspect

Monday, 18 January 2016 6:59 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 18 January 2016 7:00 PM ]

A rose lies on a sign reading "No Violence" on steps at the main Cologne train station on January 16, 2016. (AFP Photo)

German police have arrested a male refugee over alleged sex assaults against women in the Western city of Cologne on New Year’s Eve.

Prosecutors said on Monday that police arrested the first suspect directly linked to the string of assaults that have shocked Germany.

The unidentified refugee is a 26-year-old man from Algeria and was arrested at a refugee shelter in the nearby town of Kerpen over the weekend for allegedly abusing a woman and stealing her mobile phone.

Prosecutor's office spokesman Ulrich Bremer said some 497 women have filed police reports in connection to the New Year's attacks, including three rape cases.

Some 21 people have also been charged with non-sexual offences.

The attack is mainly blamed on North African and Arab refugees in the country and has fueled debate among Germany’s far-right politicians who are against Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open door policy that has resulted in accepting around one million refugees in 2015 from war-torn countries.

On January 10, gangs of people in Cologne attacked Pakistani refugees and a Syrian man, in what appeared to be reprisal assaults on asylum seekers.

People have held a number of demonstrations in different German cities in protest against the sex assaults and called on the government to limit the number of refugee arrivals.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has condemned the attacks as “intolerable” and urged an immediate investigation.

Germany’s nationalist party Alternative for Germany has called on Merkel to put an end to its open door policy and stop the arrival of the huge number of refugees to the country.The government officials, however, have warned against refugee scapegoating.

The influx of the refugees into Europe has largely been attributed to the Syrians fleeing a foreign-backed militancy in their country. Afghans, Iraqis and Eritreans constitute the other major groups of refugees.

Commenting on the refugee crisis, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in mid-September blamed Europe's refugee crisis on what he called Western support for terrorists.

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