Immigrants planned mass Cologne-style sex attacks in Finland but police were tipped off

Are the Finnish detectives saying there was no connection between the plans for Helsinki and the Cologne attacks despite the identical modus operandi?

NYE [New Year's Eve] sex attacks in Finland reported after police were tipped off immigrants would strike
By REBECCA PERRING
PUBLISHED: 10:30, Fri, Jan 8, 2016 | UPDATED: 11:18, Fri, Jan 8, 2016

A WAVE of sex attacks have been reported in the Finnish capital Helsinki as it emerges immigrants planned to strike on New Year's Eve.

It comes after a string of brutal assaults on women by a marauding gang of up to 1,000 immigrant men in the German cities of Cologne, Hamburg and Stuttgart.

Security guards hired to patrol the Finnish capital told officers there had been "widespread sexual harassment" at a central square where around 20,000 people had gathered to bring in the New Year.

Deputy police chief Ilkka Koskimaki said: "There hasn't been this kind of harassment on previous New Year's Eves or other occasions for that matter. This is a completely new phenomenon in Helsinki.

"The suspects were asylum seekers. The three were caught and taken into custody on the spot."

Three sexual assaults were reported at Helsinki central railway station on New Year's Eve, where around 1,000 mostly Iraqi asylum seekers had gathered.

A police statement read: "Police have received information about three cases of sexual assault, of which two have been filed as complaints."

Officers revealed they had beefed up security to "an exceptional level" in Helsinki for New Year's Eve celebrations after they received a tip off that "asylum seekers in the capital" had "similar plans" to those in Cologne.

Detectives have said they do not believe the incident is connected to the sickening night of sexual attacks in Cologne.

At least 120 women reported being robbed, threatened or sexually molested at New Year celebrations outside the city’s cathedral.

In addition there have also been reports of attacks on women across Germany.

Three Syrians have been arrested in southern Germany for the alleged gang rape of two teenage girls on New Year's Eve.

Cops in Switzerland's largest city of Zurich are also investigating after six women were allegedly robbed, groped and molested by a “crowd of multiple men with dark coloured skin”.

[END REPORT]