An anti-immigrant movement is picking up steam in Germany. Recent findings about a terrorist attack that happened on New Year’s Eve at a Paris police station link the knife-wielding terrorist to a house for asylum seekers in Cologne, Germany. The results of the investigation were released on Saturday spurring thousands of people into the streets of Germany in protest to stop immigration.
However, not only are people peacefully protesting their country’s stance on immigration, some have created their own vigilante groups to combat the influx of crime. One such group, a “rogue band of bikers, hooligans and bouncers,” organized an immigrant “manhunt” on Facebook before hunting down and attacking a group of Pakistani foreigners in the city of Cologne where another New Years Eve attack took place that resulted in several women being raped.
“Two young Pakistani men needed hospital treatment after being attacked by vigilante gangs hunting foreigners in Cologne in apparent revenge attacks for the mass sexual assaults on women on New Year’s Eve,” The Evening Standard reports, adding that “police said the first incident took place early yesterday evening when a group of about 20 men attacked six Pakistanis near the main station near the railway station where the New Year’s Eve attacks took place.”
Shortly after this first attack, another similar incident occurred involving a group of five people attacking a 39-year-old Syrian national causing “grievous bodily harm” according to the German police in Cologne. While the police could not say for certain that these two attacks were linked or that either attack was racially motivated, they did say that they were investigating both incidents thoroughly.