Gerstungen, Germany (dpa) – Unidentified arsonists fire-bombed a house intended for refugees in the early hours of Friday, police in the eastern German state of Thuringia said.
Police in the town of Gotha said they were not ruling out the possibility that the attack on the house, which was empty at the time, could have been racially motivated.
The owner of the unoccupied house had offered it to accommodate refugees, they said, estimating the damage at €25 000.
Thuringia’s minister for migration, Dieter Lauinger, said the owner had announced through Facebook that she was making the house available for refugees and had received negative reactions.
There have been repeated arson attacks on houses designated for use by refugees.
A week ago, a man was seriously injured as he jumped to safety from a three-storey refugee hostel in the western town of in Heppenheim, south of Frankfurt.
Four more of the 60 residents were treated for smoke inhalation. The fire brigade extinguished the flames after they had blackened an entrance area of the hostel.
Germany has seen an influx of refugees as Europe is gripped by a humanitarian crisis with thousands fleeing wars in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
DPA
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