The mayor of Cologne -- the German city where 1,000 men carried out organized sexual assault attacks on New Year's Eve -- says women and girls should abide by a "code of conduct" so that "such things do not happen to them."
This was Mayor Henriette Reker's first public comment since the incident, which took place at the city's main train station and prompted more than 90 complaints of groping and harassment. At least one woman was reportedly raped.
After Reker suggested that women should stay "one arm's length" away from strangers, the hashtag #einearmlaenge (an arm's length) started trending in Germany and elsewhere on Tuesday evening.
Hier ein Überblick über die ersten konkreten Maßnahmen nach den Vorkommnissen am Kölner Hbf: https://t.co/Q4FiFGQ6jy TR— Henriette Reker (@HenrietteReker) January 5, 2016
The mayor also recommended that women stay in groups while attending public events and to ask bystanders for help if they get in trouble.
Wie lange ist #eineArmlänge? pic.twitter.com/IUWkqw3Fv3— Konrad Weber (@konradweber) January 5, 2016
How to prevent rape? Don't rape. #einearmlaenge— Corinna Milborn (@corinnamilborn) January 6, 2016
German police said Wednesday that they are investigating whether the assaults -- which have ignited outrage and spurred a fresh debate about immigration after police said the perpetrators appeared to be of "Arab or North African origin" -- were linked to a known criminal network.
A spokesman for police in the nearby city of Duesseldorf said officers there have identified more than 2,000 suspects of North African origin in connection with organized theft offenses since the start of 2014.
Some of the offenses also involved sexual assaults as a means of distracting victims, and Duesseldorf police were cooperating closely with their counterparts in Cologne to examine possible ties to crimes there, spokesman Markus Niesczeri told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Authorities have cautioned that the nationality and residency status of the suspects is still unknown; no one has been arrested in connection with the offenses.
Germany's top security official stressed that anyone involved must be punished regardless of where they come from. He said that "a general suspicion against refugees is just as out of place as keeping quiet about criminal structures, if they can be verified."