A German town has cancelled its annual carnival scheduled for next month over fears of Cologne-style sex assaults on women.

Rheinberg, which is near the Rhine metropolis, said it 'cannot rule out' the possibility of drunken refugees coming into town to prey on women.

Cologne police are dealing with over 500 complaints of sexual assault and robbery against young women by gangs of marauding asylum seekers in the city on New Year's Eve.

Revellers take part in the 'Rose Monday' carnival in Cologne, Germany (file picture). The German town of Rheinberg has cancelled its carnival next month over fears of Cologne-style sex assaults on women

Other similar attacks also took place on a smaller scale in several other German cities, including Hamburg and Bielefeld.

Rheinberg has, like most German municipalities, absorbed some of the million-plus migrants allowed into the country in the past year.

It has around 300 housed in the Orsoy district of town.

A further 200 are set to arrive at the beginning of next month, one week before the start of the carnival season on February 8 across the whole Rhineland region.

The city said in a statement it believed a 'problematic audience' would turn up 'who had chosen the parade because they think it will not be so closely controlled by police and security personnel.'

Defiant: Cologne and Dusseldorf (above) are adamant that their carnivals will go ahead

To a lesser extent, officials said there were also concerns about traffic congestion because the main parade had been switched from a Sunday to Monday.

Carnival is a tradition dating back to medieval times in the Rhineland area and other parts of Germany.

It is a time of dressing up, heavy drinking, cabaret evenings – and the mass gatherings of people.

In Dusseldorf, which has experienced Cologne like problems for over a year from a gang of North African youths, a million people are expected on the streets when festivities begin on February 8.

Cologne police are dealing with over 500 complaints of sexual assault and robbery against young women by gangs of marauding asylum seekers in the city on New Year's Eve (above)

In Rheinberg, authorities said they had run out of time to develop a new security plan in the wake of what happened in Cologne.

'We're shocked. We've already ordered a lot of the stuff we needed, it's going to cost us,' said Paul van Holt, head of the organising committee.

'We would've needed half a year to come up with a new security plan,' he added.

Cologne and Dusseldorf, however, are adamant that the show must go on.

A spokesman for the Carnival committee in Dusseldorf called Rheinberg's decision 'ridiculous.'

'We'll celebrate the carnival just as we always have,' he said.