Women were only saved from being raped by migrants in the Cologne New Year's Eve celebrations because they were wearing tights, according to a policewoman.

Police Commissioner Sonja E, 26, was giving evidence before a fact-finding investigative committee of the state parliament in Dusseldorf when she made the statement about the everyday garment sparing women from even worse ordeals.

The officer, whose surname was withheld in the public hearing, told how marauding gangs of up to 50 mainly migrant men surrounded victims as some had their skirts lifted as the attackers attempted to penetrate them.

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Women were only saved from being raped by migrants in the Cologne New Year's Eve celebrations because they were wearing tights, according to a policewoman

'They broke down completely and just wept,' she said. 'They were completely overwhelmed.'

She helped four victims near the entrance to Cologne Cathedral on the night of the attacks in and around the central station.

And the room fell silent as she described how some victims were surrounded by up to 50 men at a time.

'The men pulled up their short dresses and grabbed their buttocks and breasts,' she added.

'The four women I spoke with said the men attempted to pentrate into their bottoms and vaginas with their fingers.

'But that did not happen because they were all wearing tights.'

Police Commissioner Sonja E, 26, was giving evidence before a fact-finding investigative committee of the state parliament in Dusseldorf when she made the statement about the everyday garment sparing women from even worse ordeals

The officer said she believed such clothing saved many of the victims from suffering far worse than just groping.

The policewoman said the level of violence on the night was 'unusually high'.

Men with broken beer bottles were attacking each other.

'I have never seen such brutally violent crime before,' she said.

'There were rockets and smoke in the air everywhere, people threw firecrackers at each other. That was not normal.'

A total of 1,600 crimes were reported on the night, most of them sexual assaults and robberies.

The attackers were almost exclusively migrant men from North Africa.

VICTIMS DESCRIBE TERRIFYING ORDEAL AT HANDS OF MOB ATTACKERS Since the vast scale of the attacks emerged, several victims have come forward to describe terrifying scenes in the marauding mob. 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. Fireworks are set off among revellers in the city town square on New Year's Eve. The evening was marred by a wave of sex attacks that police say witnesses claim were carried out by 'Arab' or 'North African' men '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 [220 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. 'I was furious.' According to Bild, a student named Evelyn, 24, from Rheinland-Pfalz, who was at the train station in Cologne, said: 'I had a knee-length skirt on, and suddenly I felt a hand on my backside under my dress. I turned round immediately and saw a grinning face.' She said that she managed to get to the cathedral and sat on a bench and suddenly she was surrounded by men once again, and had only heard them speaking Arabic. 'The only English they knew was 'Hey Baby'. I was grabbed and held by the arm and it was a nightmare. We were trapped in a mass of people.' Lea Westkamp, 19, told a TV station: 'I was surrounded and helpless. I could do nothing. These men were all over me.' Advertisement

A woman holds a sign reading 'Have respect and nice sex' during a demonstration in Cologne

A leaked report in July revealed a staggering 1,200 women and girls were sexually abused in German cities during New Year's Eve celebrations.

The police document stated detectives believe 2,000 men were involved across various cities but that the bulk of the crimes were committed in Cologne and Hamburg where 600 and 400 sexual assaults on women were reported respectively.

One of the victims, an 18-year-old woman, had an abortion after she was raped in the mass sexual frenzy at Cologne train station on New Year's Eve.

She was thrown around a group of men before eventually falling on the floor, where she was raped alongside another girl.

Her ordeal ended when a policeman pulled the man away and she ran home in a panic.

Out of shame at what happened she decided not to report the rape to police, and had never raised the matter, but did visit the hospital.

When she was told there that she was pregnant, an abortion was arranged, but she admitted she was not 100 percent sure if her attacker was the father of the unborn child.

BOOM IN IMMIGRATION LEADS TO HEIGHTENED TENSIONS Cologne, located in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, is a 2000-year-old city which was first established as an outpost of the Roman Empire. Throughout the following centuries, its population has steadily increased to now number more than 1million people, with a total of 3million living in the wider area. The huge population boom is attributed to immigration, much of which comes from Turkey. Official statistics show that in 2006, just over 30 percent of the population were migrants and 120,000 were Muslim. However, these figures are likely to have drastically altered in the past two years as waves of migrants from Syria and other conflicts in the Middle East make their way into the country. Last year alone Cologne welcomed 10,000 migrants into the city. The exact numbers of the recent influx have not yet been confirmed by official statisticians, but in 2012 - before the worst of the asylum-seeking crisis had begun - migration flows had already risen by a third from the previous year. This huge migration, which many in Germany fear will over-run existing social systems and infrastructure, has been partly facilitated by Chancellor Angela Merkel's willingness to take in 1million migrants this year alone. Advertisement



