Cologne police had just 143 officers on duty to cover the whole city on New Year’s Eve after their request for additional men was turned down by the state home secretary. The lack of officers was a major contributing factor to the chaos outside the main railway station in Cologne on New Year’s Eve, as eye witnesses reported officers having to release arrested migrant suspects because there were no police vans available to take them away in. An official police report on the event leaked to the press has now confirmed a lack of manpower meant arrests could not be made, and officers were left unable to clear the square as offenders refused to heed instructions. The manpower problem on new year’s eve caused by North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) Home Secretary Ralf Jäger turning down the request by the chief of police, Wolfgang Albers for an extra 100 men. Just days after the attacks, which have seen now hundreds of reports of assault made to police across Germany, he blasted the police force he had denied extra men to, demanding answers over what had allowed the violence to flourish. He said: “The police in Cologne, but also the federal police must explain in detail