Rival demonstrations in Cologne after New Year's Eve assaults

Hundreds of anti-Islam demonstrators and left-wing counter protesters have taken to the streets of Cologne in response to a string of New Year’s Eve sexual assaults and robberies in the city blamed largely on foreigners.

Police said today that some 1,700 protesters from the anti-Islam Pegida movement were kept apart from 1,300 counter demonstrators in simultaneous protests outside the city’s main train station.