FREE now and never miss the top politics stories again. SUBSCRIBE Invalid email Sign up fornow and never miss the top politics stories again. We will use your email address only for sending you newsletters. Please see our Privacy Notice for details of your data protection rights.

The interior ministry has also announced it would beef up security at public events following the Berlin terror attack at a Christmas market. “It’s a national campaign aimed primarily at women on New Year’s Eve,” ministry spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundboeck said. If activated, the free gadgets will emit a shrill sound aimed at chasing away potential aggressors, he added. Several hundred thousand visitors are expected to take to the streets of Vienna, which will host its annual New Year’s Eve party trail, as they usher in 2017.

GETTY Austrian police will hand out 6,000 rape whistles as they bolster festive security

It’s a national campaign aimed primarily at women on New Year’s Eve Karl-Heinz Grundboeck

Police have said revellers will be able to pick up the pocket alarms along the trail. Austrian interior minister Wolfgang Sobotka announced the country will increase security in public places during New Year’s celebrations. Mr Sokotka said Austria is well prepared for any terrorist attack, while admitting it is impossible to provide "100 per cent security". An official German probe into the sexual frenzy at Cologne’s main railway station on New Year’s Eve last year concluded that 2,000 mostly North African men were responsible for most of the attacks and robberies on 1,200 women.

The Committee of Inquiry of the Dusseldorf parliament into the excesses on the night has met 58 times since February 18, examined 400,000 pieces of paper and over 24 hours of recordings of frightened women calling emergency services for help. It has been reported that just 38 police were on duty trying to help the multitudes of women being attacked. Psychologist Rudolf Egg said the lax attitude of the police served to create a "legal vacuum" in which hitherto law-abiding men were drawn into the incident. Shocking new video taken on the night by specially-trained police officials showed just how vastly out-numbered the city’s law enforcement were as they attempted to control the attacks.

Cologne: Sex Attacks and Robberies Tue, January 12, 2016 Thirty-one suspects, including 18 asylum seekers, are under investigation over offences including sexual assault and theft in Cologne on New Year's Eve. Far right protestors in Lepzig have rallied against refugees and German chancellor Angela Merkel. Play slideshow Reuters•Getty 1 of 22 Protestors in Lepzig rally after over 100 women were sexually assualted on New Year's Eve