REUTERS

The police chief Wolfgang Albers, 60, was informed by the state interior minister Ralf Jaeger that he would be given early retirement, the source said. An announcement is expected later on Friday, Reuters wrote.

Police have said that roughly a thousand men of foreign descent mugged, threatened and assaulted women in the city center on New Year's Eve. The incident has raised pressure on local police, the state government and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.