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>The official police account holds that around 21:00h [81] on 31 December 2015, some 500 men, aged 15–35,[11] appearing Arab or North African in background,[82] strongly intoxicated with alcohol,[81] had gathered on the plaza between Cologne central train station and the cathedral and were shooting fireworks into the air and at the rest of the crowd,[11][81] after which this 'Arab/North African' group had grown to 1,000 men by 23:00h.[28][81][83] A high commissioner of the Cologne police deployed at the scene that night contended in Die Welt on 7 January that at 21:45h the crowd on the plaza and cathedral steps was randomly shooting fireworks and throwing bottles, "mostly men with migration background", counted already "several thousand", and kept growing until 23:00h.[25]
