Angela Merkel Heckled And Booed By 'Shameful' Anti-Refugee Protesters In Heidenau

Angela Merkel Has Some Strong Words For Anti-Immigrant Hecklers
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel (2nd L) makes a statement flanked by Heidenau's mayor Juergen Opitz (L), Red Cross president Rudolf Seiters (2nd R) and Saxony's State Premier Stanislaw Tillich (R) after a visit to a shelter for asylum-seekers in Heidenau, eastern Germany
TOBIAS SCHWARZ via Getty Images

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has strongly condemned a group of violent anti-refugee protesters who injured dozens of police officers in clashes outside an asylum seekers' shelter earlier this week.

Merkel was heckled on a visit to the recently-opened centre by far-right activists who chanted slogans such as "traitor, traitor” and “we are the mob” at her.

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Protesters with a sign that reads 'Nation Traitor'

She was met by Saxony state premier Stanislaw Tillich before holding talks with refugees and centre-workers, but met hostility on arrival.

Demonstrators booed and heckled her, jostling with police to protest the number of desperate migrants fleeing their home countries in search of refuge.

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Angry protesters clashed with police

Merkel later hit out at her critics, describing violent campaigners behaviour as "abhorrent" and "shameful".

Her visit came after she made comments condemning neo-Nazi protests that took place outside the same centre over the weekend.

Germany has said it expects 800,000 applications for asylum by the end of 2015.