Excerpt:
Germany's Justice Minister Heiko Maas said Sunday that the shocking spate of sexual assaults during New Year festivities in Cologne was organised.
"For such a horde of people to meet and commit such crimes, it has to have been planned somehow," he told Bild am Sonntag newspaper.
"No one can tell me that this was not coordinated or planned. The suspicion is that a specific date and an expected crowd was picked," he said, adding that if confirmed, that would "take on a new dimension".