COLOGNE, Germany (AP) – Revelers streamed onto the streets of Cologne on Thursday for the start of the city’s annual street Carnival, amid heightened security following an unprecedented series of robberies and sexual assaults mostly targeting women at New Year.
The five-day Carnival kicks off with the traditional “Weiberfastnacht” festivities – a day when women symbolically take charge of the city. Organizers have urged revelers to report any harassment to security personnel, and the number of police patrolling the streets has been doubled compared with last year to over 2,000.
Josef Sommer, who heads the city’s tourism agency, said he was confident the measures would prevent a repeat of the New Year’s assaults and allay latent fears of Paris-style attacks by extremists.
“Everyone can celebrate Carnival the way they’re used to, with the exception perhaps that people should follow police advice to refrain from wearing costumes that include realistic replica weapons,” Sommer told The Associated Press.
The New Year assaults prompted a nationwide uproar, the removal of Cologne’s police chief and a heated debate about integration at a time when Germany has seen huge numbers of refugees come into the country. Almost 1.1 million asylum seekers arrived in Germany last year and most of the attackers in Cologne were described as being of “Arab or North African” origin.