MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Two of the cases were "grievous," police chief Michael Temme said Friday, as cited by the local Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper.
In one incident, a Belgian female reporter was groped on camera as she covered the annual week-long celebrations in North Rhine-Westphalia.
According to a police statement, the second attack took place in central Cologne early Friday. Police said a young woman was approached by an unknown man who knocked her out and raped her.
"Police involved [in investigation] detained a 17-year-old man near the scene who has asylum-seeker status in Germany," the statement read.
Security was stepped up in Cologne following a series of sexual attacks on women on New Year’s Eve, where groups of men of North African origin targeted female revelers.