German police shut down far-right music concert after Nazi chants

Members of crowd heard shouting 'Sieg Heil' during gig in eastern state of Saxony

Far-right supporters chant at anti-fascist rivals in Chemnitz, Saxony (Getty Images)

German officers shut down a far-right music concert after members of the audience began chanting a Nazi slogan, police have said.

The gig in Ostritz, a town in the eastern state of Saxony, attracted several hundred people on Saturday evening, according to German newspaper Deutsche Welle.

“Two far-right bands played in front of several hundred participants," Saxony police said in a statement. "Around 11.20pm, the policemen guarding the event heard 'Sieg Heil' chants. Several locals also reported to police about it."

“Sieg Heil” is a Nazi-era greeting meaning “Hail Victory”.

Police ended the concert at around 1.10am on Sunday and authorities have opened an investigation.

Earlier this year, hundreds of neo-Nazis gathered in Ostritz, which is near the Polish border, to attend a festival timed to coincide with Adolf Hitler’s birthday.

It comes amid growing concern about neo-Nazism in Germany, and particularly in Saxony, where earlier this year a 35-year-old German-Cuban man was killed, allegedly by immigrants, in the city of Chemnitz.

The death triggered far-right rallies at which protesters were pictured making Nazi salutes and chasing down and attacking passers-by they suspected of being foreign.

Tensions in Saxony reflect the rowing polarisation over Germany’s liberal immigration policies, which have allowed more than a million refugees and migrants to move to the country since 2015.

In the first half of the year, 131 music events within the neo-Nazi scene attracted 13,000 visitors across Germany, national media reported.