According to the Düsseldorf-based daily, the government coalition in Berlin was planning on Friday to increase staff numbers at these security agencies in the wake of recent xenophobic attacks against refugees.

"We need a massive increase in staff numbers at the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Federal Criminal Police Office," the Social Democrat Burkhard Lischka was quoted as saying by the newspaper "Rheinische Post" in its Friday edition.

The financial preconditions for strenghtening these German security agencies were to be created very soon, during the ongoing budget consultations, the newspaper reported.

BKA-report: Attacks on refugee shelters more than doubled

Thomas Strobl from chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrat Party (CDU) stated that the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution was to be strenghtened. "We will not allow right-wing extremists to soil Germany's reputation as a tolerant country," he underlined.

A report of Germany's criminal investigative police force, the Federal Criminal Office (BKA), revealed that the number of attacks on refugee shelters had more than doubled this year compared to 2014. The BKA expected right-wing extremists to intensify their agitation against Germany's asylum policy.

The report warned that asylum-seekers, people who helped them and even politicians were increasingly at risk of becoming targets of xenophobic crimes. It was written a few days before the knife attack on Cologne mayoral candidate Henriette Reker on Saturday, a politician known for her pro-refugee stance.

das/rc (dpa, EPD)