Cologne

Over the last several days, more information has come to light with regard to the wave of sexual assaults that occurred across Europe on New Year’s Eve.

What some observers initially assumed was an set of isolated attacks in Cologne’s city center now appears to have been a bloc-wide phenomenon as women from Austria, to Switzerland, to Finland come forward to report being accosted by what some police say were gangs of drunken Mid-East asylum seekers.

On Thursday, we got what appears to be confirmation that the “hundreds” of suspects involved in a series of sexual assaults on German women were largely of Arab origin. According to German media, many of the men were asylum seekers who had recently entered the country from the war-torn Mid-East.

The assaults occurred in the city center in Cologne, where eyewitnesses and victims say groups of marauding New Year’s revelers accosted women, in some instances making off with their belongings. Attacks were also reported in Hamburg, and Stuttgart.

This week, many German citizens were appalled to hear the details of what allegedly occurred on New Year’s Eve in Cologne.

According to eyewitness accounts and a number of apparent victims, hundreds of “Arab or North African” men engaged in coordinated sexual assaults and robberies across Germany with attacks reported in Cologne, Hamburg, and Stuttgart.

Earlier today, we brought you an eyewitness account of the melee that unfolded in Cologne, Germany on New Year’s Eve.

Allegedly, hundreds of 18-35 year-old males “of Arab and North African origin” robbed and sexually assaulted women gathered in the city center. Assaults were also reported in Hamburg and Stuttgart. Authorities are attempting to discern if there's a connection.

Yesterday, we were shocked to learn that as German anger boils over at the country's unprecedented refugee wave, one or more so far unknown assailants fired shots through the window at a home for asylum seekers in western Germany injuring one resident as he was sleeping. As AP noted it wasn't immediately clear who was responsible for the incident or what the motive was. However, Darmstadt prosecutors' spokeswoman Nina Reininger told news agency dpa: "If someone shoots at housing which has people inside, I assume that it is a targeted attack."