The police chief of Cologne has been sacked after his force was slammed over its handling of a string on New Year's Eve sex attacks by migrants.
Wolfgang Albers was heavily criticised for the police's response to the attacks on women by the groups of men among a 1,000-strong crowd.
German authorities have now identified 31 people, including 18 asylum-seekers, as suspects in Cologne on New Year's Eve one of several such incidents in Europe.
Police at first failed to mention the attacks around Cologne's main train station in their initial morning report on New Year's Day, describing overnight festivities as 'largely peaceful.'
Albers, the former police chief, acknowledged that mistake earlier this week, but he dismissed widespread criticism that his officers reacted too slowly in response to reports of assaults and harassment of women.
Officers described the 31 offenders as being predominantly of Arab or North African origin.
The 31 included nine Algerians, eight Moroccans, five Iranians, four Syrians, two Germans and one person each from Iraq, Serbia and the United States.
Eighteen of them were classed as asylum seekers.
None of the 31 has been accused of specifically committing sexual assaults, the aspect of Cologne's disturbances that attracted most public outrage at home and abroad.
Cologne Mayor Henriette Reker suggested Friday that police had withheld information from her, including on the origin of suspects. She said that her 'trust in the Cologne police leadership is significantly shaken.'
Government spokesman Georg Streiter said the chancellor wants 'the whole truth' about the events in Cologne and 'nothing should be held back and nothing should be glossed over.
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