Migrants sexually assault 14 women and 1,000-strong gang throw fireworks at police as chaos hits NYE events across Germany despite heightened security
Security was ramped up in city centres amid fears of a terror attack and in a bid to prevent a repeat of last year's attacks in Cologne
NEW Year's Eve celebrations descended into chaos across Germany after at least 14 women were sexually assaulted and fireworks were thrown at police.
Security was ramped up in city centres amid fears of a terror attack and in a bid to prevent a repeat of the attacks in Cologne last year, but events still spiralled out of control.
A woman, aged 30, and a police officer in a patrol car were also reportedly injured by fireworks.
A trio of men from Iraq and Syria were banned from the town's Königsplatz square after firing rockets, police said.
Police spokesman Friedhelm Bechtel said: "I am shocked when fellow citizens turn New Year's Eve on fellow human beings. It makes me sad and stunned."
Meanwhile three Afghan nationals, aged 19, 21 and 37, were accused of repeatedly groping two 18-year-old girls and arrested but denied all allegations.
.Earlier in the evening a rocket was fired at group of homeless people and a 32-year-old was seriously injured.
In Cologne police say they managed to prevent a repeat of the horrific events of the previous year where more than 1,000 sex attacks were reported.
Officers screened 650 mostly North African men at train stations before they made their way to the city centre.
At least 150 of them were described as "the clientele from last year."
Police swooped on the throng around 9.30pm and took the personal details of all of them. There were no arrests.
Many were put on to trains back to the towns they had come from by officers.
One man was arrested for groping a woman, three more who did the same are still being hunted.
There were 1,500 police on duty - ten times the number last year - backed up by hundreds of volunteers and public order officials.
"Overall the situation dissolved quickly and quietly because many parties left the city by train," said a police spokesman.
On the other side of the Rhine at the Deutzer train station a group of nearly 300 people of North African origin were met by an overwhelming police presence.
Again, many were sent back to the places they had come from.
"On the whole, the security plan worked", said Cologne Police President Jürgen Mathies. In total six people were arrested in the course of the evening.
Fireworks were banned in and around the station and the cathedral outside, security zones checked the bags of revellers who came to watch a light show by a Berlin artist and anyone drunk or threatening was turned away.
More than 1,500 women are believed to have been subjected to horrifying sexual assaults – including 24 cases of alleged rape - across German cities last New Year’s Eve.
Authorities confirmed the men behind the attacks were largely migrants of North African appearance.
Cologne was the worst-hit with up to 600 women being assaulted in and around the city’s main train station.
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