Man held after cars in German city found smeared with swastikas in blood

Police said they were alerted by a man who found a car in Hanau smeared with reddish liquid

A man is being held by police after about 50 vehicles were smeared in human blood in the German city of Hanau near Frankfurt.

Cars, walls and postboxes were defaced sometimes with swastikas, in the Lamboy district of Hanau, police said earlier.

After a tip-off, they said later that a 31-year-old Romanian man was detained at his home and a breathalyser test showed he had a high blood alcohol level.

German investigators said their initial findings suggested the man had reacted to an incident at work and would be referred to a psychiatric clinic.

Local authorities had earlier appealed to the public for information.

Swastikas are banned in Germany under laws banning the public display of Nazi symbols.

Bundestag Vice President Omid Nouripour said the attack had left him speechless and needed to be solved quickly.

"This act strikes at the very heart of Hanau and reopens the wounds of the far-right terrorist attack five years ago," he wrote on X, referring to the killing of nine people by a gunman targeting people of immigrant origin in Hanau in February 2020.