Two British tourists have been beaten and robbed by a gang of six “Arab appearance” men in Cologne’s Cathedral square.

The two men were briefly hospitalised on Friday night after being jumped by a gang of six men outside Cologne’s central rail station. Local newspaper Express reports the tourists had just got off a tram at the station when they were attacked by the group, who had lured them out under the pretext of taking them to a party.

Cologne police are now seeking the attackers. One of the gang was described by the victims as being “particularly large” and dark-skinned. The other five were of ordinary build and “Arab-looking”. All of the men were said to be between 18 and 20 years old.

The British tourists were punched and kicked, and were robbed of a wallet and mobile phone. The assailants reportedly fled into the night.

The historic square between Cologne’s Medieval cathedral and Wilhelmine railway station which become infamous worldwide in January for mass sex attacks which saw over 1,000 men and women beaten, robbed, groped, and even raped by predominantly migrant males appears to have still not shed its migrant problem after reports of the latest another attack. While a heavy police presence dominated the square in the weeks after reports of the attacks, which local government had initially conspired to cover up, the latest attack shows the waning deployment has allowed migrant crime gangs to filter back in.

Apart from the scale of the violence on the night, which saw hundreds of women sexually assaulted and at least one left pregnant by her attackers, much of the controversy surrounding the New Year’s Eve attacks has settled around the actions of the North Rhine Westphalia and governments during and after the attacks. While the state interior minister initially claimed the chaos had been caused by the police force deploying too few officers to the area, it was later revealed police had made a request to the minister for extra officers in anticipation of trouble — but were turned down.

Later leaks and releases of documents showed there were just 80 officers on patrol in the whole city that night, and police had been ordered to cover-up the immigrant nature of the attacks by misidentifying the culprits in their reports. Although it was strongly denied by the Cologne government at the time of the attacks that so-called refugees had anything to do with the violence, it was later proven this was not the case six months after the fact.