Germany: Dead pig with Angela Merkel's name daubed on it found dumped at mosque site

A dead pig with Chancellor Angela Merkel's name daubed on it in red has been dumped at a mosque building site in eastern Germany. Police who found the dead animal on a land lot in northern Leipzig said it was clear perpetrators were moved by xenophobic beliefs.

"On the basis of the location where it was found, it is obvious it was an anti-foreigner or xenophobic action," Leipzig police spokesman Uwe Voigt told news agency DPA. The words "Mutti Merkel" had been emblazoned in red paint on the pig's body. Mutti, German for mother, is a widely used, affectionate nickname given by Germans to their Chancellor.

It was not the first time the site has been targeted in a suspected Islamophobic attack. After plans for the mosque were made public in 2013 five pigs' heads were found on the designated terrain. Pigs are deemed impure by Islam.

In recent months, Germany has seen a growing number of violent episodes targeting Muslims and migrants amid increasing hostility towards the more than one million asylum-seekers that arrived in the past year.

In January, an explosive device was hurled against a refugee home in the south west town of Villingen-Schwenningen, while in February a hotel converted into migrant housing centre was set ablaze in Bautzen drawing celebratory cheers from onlookers.

Like Leipzig, Bautzen is located in the eastern Saxony region, the heartland of the anti-Islam Pegida movement.