IN COLOGNE, people are afraid. And many residents are angry.

The German city is reeling after a series of apparently co-ordinated sexual assaults on local women, allegedly committed by large groups of “Arab-looking men”.

Various reports give startling accounts of dozens of offenders surrounding victims, robbing them and in many cases sexually violating them. At least one rape has been reported.

The mass crime is alleged to have occurred on New Year’s Eve as thousands of people were drawn to year-end festivities outside the western German city’s main train station and its famous Gothic cathedral. Police were clearing the area after fireworks were thrown into the crowd — and it is while that operation was being carried out that the assaults took place.

One victim, an 18-year-old identified only as Michelle, has told N-TV in Germany about her ordeal.

“At around 11pm we were at the main train station and wanted to travel on to see the fireworks, and that was when we first noticed all these men standing around,” she said.

“We managed to go into the cathedral and wanted to go past the Museum Ludwig to join everyone and watch the fireworks by the river, but suddenly we were surrounded by a group of between 20 and 30 men.

“They were full of anger, and we had to make sure that none of us were pulled away by them. They were groping us and we were trying to get away as quickly as possible.”

She said the gang stole mobile phones from the girls’ pockets as they tried to escape. Later that evening when Michelle tried to return home, she saw fireworks being thrown into the crowds.

“It was around 12:30 and we went back to the train station to catch a train that was supposed to go at 1am. But there were so many people around it was really difficult to get to the platform,” she said.

“It was only when I got to the platform that I realised my train was not travelling and I had to go back through the mass of men and walked the five kilometres home by foot.”

The issue has been complicated by claims the police covered up the assaults to stop a hysterical public from blaming refugees. They initially didn’t give details of the incidents to media, or a description of the suspects.

That — and the failure of police to prevent the attacks — has increased pressure on the government and Chancellor Angela Merkel, who welcomed a million migrants into the country last year, many of whom were from war-torn Syria.

A policeman who was outside Cologne station during the New Year’s Eve trouble told the city’s Express news website that he had detained eight suspects. “They were all asylum seekers, carrying copies of their residence certificates,” he said.

Those comments are at odds with other official statements from police who have not publicly said if the suspects were recent arrivals or second generation immigrants.

Some estimates are that 1000 drunk and aggressive men were involved.

Police said they had received 90 criminal complaints by yesterday, including a plainclothes policewoman was reportedly among those attacked. “We assume more people will come forward,” police chief Wolfgang Albers told reporters.

Katja L., 28, said she was with three friends outside the station when they encountered a group of “foreign-looking men”.

“Suddenly I felt a hand on my bottom, then on my breasts, then I was groped everywhere,” she told Cologne tabloid Express.

“It was horrible. Although we screamed and flailed about, the guys didn’t stop. I was beside myself and think that I was touched about 100 times across around 200 metres (yards).” A woman in her 30s interviewed on rolling news channel N24 said she was groped by a group of “Arab-looking men”.

“They didn’t look at me aggressively, they seemed more curious than anything, and a little drunk,” she said.

One man told the BBC how his partner and 15-year-old daughter were surrounded by an enormous crowd outside the station and he was unable to help. “The attackers grabbed her and my partner’s breasts and groped them between their legs.”

Justice Minister Heiko Maas said the assaults represented “a new dimension of crime that we will have to get to grips with,” adding that they had appeared to be “co-ordinated”.

Asked by a journalist whether refugees were behind the rampage, Maas said police were still working to identify the attackers, and warned against linking the attacks and migration.

But concern is building that authorities were more anxious about keeping the peace than telling the public what had happened.

However, Mr Maas promised the attackers would be dealt with harshly. “The law does not discriminate regarding a person’s origin or passport. All are equal before the law”.

Cologne news website Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger says the suspects were already known to police because of frequent pickpocketing in and around Cologne central station.

Political leaders have condemned the assaults.

Cologne Mayor Henriette Reker said the attacks were “monstrous”. “We cannot allow this to become a lawless area,” she said, insisting that visitors could not come to the city fearing attack.

However, her response to the attacks has also come under fire. She has suggested women stay a certain distance from strangers on the street and advised women to walk in groups when they can and to avoid being targeted.

As a result many people took to social media on Wednesday under the hashtag #EineArmlaenge , German for arms length, to mock her proposal for how women should behave.

Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert said she had called on Mayor Reker, to express her “outrage” over the violence, which she said required “a tough response from the state”.

“Everything must be done to find as many of the perpetrators as possible as quickly as possible and bring them to justice, regardless of their origin or background,” Seibert quoted Merkel as saying.