All 14 Ukrainian refugees unharmed after the shelter was destroyed as authorities suspect arson after swastika graffiti was recently found at the facility’s entrance.
The Red Cross home for Ukrainian refugees was almost completely destroyed in the fire. (Reuters)
A shelter for Ukrainian refugees in northern Germany was razed in a fire, local media reported.
None of the 14 refugees staying at the shelter were injured on Wednesday night when the flames consumed the former hotel building in Groß Stromkendorf, a town in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
In a statement, the police headquarters in Rostock suspected that the fire had a political dimension and had set up an investigative team headed by the provisional head of state security.
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Swastika spray painted
Police visited the accommodation over the weekend after a swastika was sprayed on the entrance sign, according to local media reports.
District administrator Tino Schomann told reporters: “From my many years of experience as a firefighter, I currently assume that the fire was intentionally set.”
According to the fire brigade, the emergency services had to let the building burn down in a controlled manner because it could no longer be saved.
The refugees were transferred from the district to other accommodations.
The fire in the sparsely populated, poor eastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania happened near where in August 1992 hundreds of right-wing extremists rioted for two days against asylum seekers and threw petrol bombs at their camps in Germany’s worst post-war anti-immigrant mob attacks.
The events sparked replica attacks across Germany, including the neo-Nazi arson attack on a Turkish family’s home in Solingen.
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Source: TRTWorld and agencies
