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NEW YEAR'S EVE SEXUAL ASSAULTS

CRIME

Police hunting 16 over Cologne sexual assaults

Cologne police said on Thursday that they have identified 16 suspects in the wave of sexual assaults around the city's main train station on New Year's Eve.

Police hunting 16 over Cologne sexual assaults
Police outside Cologne main train station on Wednesday. Photo: DPA

Most of the suspects have not yet been identified by name, but have been singled out in picture or video recordings.

The total number of crime reports submitted to police in the western cathedral city reached 121 by Thursday, with around three-quarters of them relating to sexual assault.

Two women submitted reports of rape.

Germany has been shocked at the extent of the thefts, violence and sexual assaults on New Year's Eve in Cologne – and at the apparent inability of police to handle them – vivdly depicted in a police report that emerged on Thursday.

The perpetrators were among a large crowd of men of reportedly Arab or north African backgrounds who gathered around the train station, drinking and discharging fireworks.

Politicians and police have been pointing the finger of blame at one another – while the racially charged character of the events has poured fuel on the fire of an already tense debate over the number of refugees in Germany.

While there is no evidence that any of the perpetrators were refugees, conservatives and the far-right have gladly built the attacks into complaints over the large numbers of Muslims who have arrived in Germany seeking asylum since summer 2015.

'Self-defence force' forms in Düsseldorf

Meanwhile, a number of people in Düsseldorf – one of Cologne's neighbouring cities – joined a group urging the formation of a “Bürgerwehr” or self-defence force on Facebook, the Rheinische Post (RP) reported on Thursday.

Organizers in the group posted that they planned to “patrol through the city” to help women if they saw them under attack.

They said that the group was not political or violent, but had simply formed to make the city “safer for our women”.

Around 1,000 people had joined the group, which plans its first outing on Saturday, after it had existed for just one day.

“The police are responsible for public security in Germany,” a city police spokesman told RP. “Going in search of criminals in a conscientious and targeted way is not the business of ordinary citizens.”

SEE ALSO: Police report shows their side of Cologne assaults

BUSINESS

Elon Musk visits Tesla’s sabotage-hit German factory

Elon Musk travelled Wednesday to Tesla's factory near Berlin to lend his workers "support" after the plant was forced to halt production by a suspected arson attack on nearby power lines.

Elon Musk visits Tesla's sabotage-hit German factory

The Tesla CEO addressed thousands of employees on arrival at the site, accusing “eco-terrorists” of the sabotage as he defended his company’s green credentials.

With his son X AE A-XII in his arms, Musk said: “I am here to support you.”

The billionaire’s visit came a week after power lines supplying the electric carmaker’s only European plant were set on fire in an act of sabotage claimed by a far-left group called the Vulkangruppe (Volcano Group).

READ ALSO: Far-left group claims ‘sabotage’ on Tesla’s German factory

Musk had said then that the attack was “extremely dumb”, while the company said it would cost it several hundred million euros.

A week on, the lights have come back on at the site, but Andre Thierig, who heads the site, said on LinkedIn that it would “take a bit of time” before production is back to full speed.

Industry experts have warned that the reputational impact caused by the sabotage on the region could be more severe than the losses suffered by Tesla.

Tesla’s German plant started production in 2022 following an arduous two-year approval and construction process dogged by administrative and legal obstacles.

Tesla wants to expand the site by 170 hectares and boost production up to one million vehicles annually to feed Europe’s growing demand for electric cars and take on rivals who are shifting away from combustion engine vehicles.

But the plans have annoyed local residents, who voted against the project in a non-binding ballot last month.

After the vote, Tesla said it might have to rethink the plans. Environmental activists opposed to the expansion of the factory have recently also set up a camp in a wooded area near the plant.

READ ALSO: Why is Tesla’s expansion near Berlin so controversial?

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