Merkel, German intel chief clash on 'foreigner hunt' reports

The head of Germany's domestic intelligence agency Friday raised doubts about reports of a "hunt on foreigners" by neo-Nazi mobs in a flashpoint city last month, directly contradicting Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Weighing in on an issue that has reignited the immigration debate in the country, agency chief Hans-Georg Maassen told the daily Bild that he had "no proof that the video circulating on the internet" showing foreign-looking people being accosted and chased "is authentic".

"I share the scepticism about media reports of right-wing extremist foreigner hunts in Chemnitz," the eastern city that has seen several far-right rallies since the killing of a German man, allegedly by asylum seekers, in late August.

"Based on my cautious assessment, there are good reasons to believe that this was intentional false information, possibly to detract attention from the murder in Chemnitz," Maassen said.

Extremist groups and thousands of local citizens took to the streets in the days after the fatal stabbing, with a number of participants shouting anti-foreigner slurs and flashing the illegal Nazi salute.

In a spasm of violence that shocked the country, marauding mobs also assaulted reporters an police.

During the first demonstration on August 26, a freelance journalist working for respected weekly Die Zeit posted two videos on Twitter showing demonstrators running after foreign-looking people.

They were widely picked up by media outlets.

Police said that several people have come forward saying they were assaulted, including a Syrian, a Bulgarian and an Afghan.

Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert quickly condemned the scenes from Chemnitz, including speaking of protesters "hunting down" foreigners.

Merkel herself has repeatedly used the phrase in the ensuing heated debate, saying "hate in the streets" has no place in Germany.

However, this week the premier of Saxony, Michael Kretschmer, pushed back against the accounts of events in his state, telling the regional assembly there had been "no mob, no hunting of foreigners and no pogroms".