Mob Attacks Cologne Migrants as Probe Blames Refugees for NYE Violence

German authorities said Monday that nearly all suspects in the New Year's Eve violence against women in Cologne were "of foreign origin", as police blamed far-right thugs for reprisal attacks.

The men who groped and robbed women in the chaotic year-end festivities emerged from a crowd of over 1,000 "Arab and North African" men near Cologne's main railway station, said Ralf Jaeger, interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia state.

Witness accounts and police reports indicated that "nearly all the people who committed these crimes were of foreign origin," including many recently arrived refugees, he said, adding however that still no formal charges had been laid.

The sexual violence that marred the start of 2016 has shocked Germany and piled pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel over her liberal stance towards refugees, after 1.1 million arrived last year from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries.

Far-right groups have since vented their rage against Merkel and migrants at street protests, while xenophobic mobs were blamed for a spate of attacks against Pakistani, Syrian and African men in Cologne on Sunday night.

Police said groups linked to Cologne's extremist hooligan scene had used social media to organise gatherings in the inner city Sunday evening, among them known far-right extremists and members of local biker gangs.

In one attack, some 25 men chased a man of African appearance who ran to seek protection among a group of six Pakistanis. "The pursuers then beat and kicked these young Pakistani men," said crime division chief Norbert Wagner.

In another attack, eight people beat a 39-year-old Syrian at the central railway station. Two other assaults targeted three men from Guinea, and another Syrian man.

Justice Minister Heiko Maas earlier warned that "those who now hound refugees -- on the Internet or on the streets -- have obviously just been waiting for the events of Cologne" and were now "shamelessly exploiting" the attacks.

Jaeger also warned that "to label certain groups and stigmatize them as sexual offenders is not just wrong, but dangerous."

Still, xenophobic protesters planned to take to the streets again Monday. After far-right protests erupted in Cologne Saturday, a sister group of the Islamophobic PEGIDA movement was due to rally after dark in the eastern city of Leipzig.

- Turning point? -

In Rome, Pope Francis urged European governments to keep welcoming migrants while acknowledging security and other concerns.

He said the sheer size of the influx was causing "inevitable problems," as well as "fears about security, further exacerbated by the growing threat of international terrorism."

But the pontiff called on European leaders not to lose "the values and principles of humanity ... however much they may prove, in some moments of history, a burden difficult to bear."

The scale of the New Year's Eve assaults has shocked Germany and put a spotlight on the record influx.

Witnesses described terrifying scenes of hundreds of women running a gauntlet of groping hands, lewd insults, robberies and even rapes in the mob violence.

Police said more than 500 complaints had been lodged since, 40 percent of them related to sexual assault.

"It's not premature to speak of a turning point (after Cologne), or at least the reinforcing of a trend that had already started to take shape lately," Andreas Roedder, contemporary history professor at Mainz University, told AFP.

With thousands of asylum seekers still streaming into Germany every day, Merkel has come under fire, even within her own conservative alliance, who want her to put a cap on the number of refugees.

Merkel has not wavered from her stance but has adopted a firmer tone after Cologne, pledging to change the law to make it easier to expel convicted asylum seekers.

Reflecting rising popular fears, a poll by broadcaster RTL found that 57 percent of Germans feared crime would rise along with the record migrant influx, while 40 percent disagreed. 

Nevertheless a majority -- 60 percent -- said their opinion of foreigners had not changed, while 37 percent said they had become more critical and negative about newcomers.