7 January 2016, 15:36 GMT
BERLIN (Sputnik) — On New Year's Eve, dozens of women in Cologne were robbed, threatened and sexually assaulted by small groups of aggressive men.
"As of yesterday evening <…> federal police identified 32 people, 31 of them by name <…> Complaints of sexual assault also were filed to the police, at present there are only three," Tobias Plate said at a briefing.
All identified criminals, 29 of whom had a residence permit in Germany, were charged with assault and theft, he added.
According to the spokesman, there were nine Algerian, eight Moroccan, five Iranian, four Syrian nationals among the suspects.
Several similar New Year's Eve incidents mostly related to sexual harassment were reported in Frankfurt, Dusseldorf and Berlin.
