German authorities have released the photos of five suspects reportedly involved in the massive New Year’s Eve sexual assaults against women in Cologne Square. The German police publicised the photos of the five male suspects after extensive examination of visual and other data it managed to gather. All men are of North African origin, while according to the investigation the men were prowling among women in the square waiting for the right opportunity to pounce on them. A police official said some of the photos of the suspects came from the victims while other were taken from security cameras. There were 1,100 reports of sexual assaults on that New Year’s Even with the initial probe pointing to 108 suspects. 40 per cent of the reports concerned rapes. The incident caused a furor as it was initially covered up by German media for fear of causing racial and anti-immigrant feelings.