Chancellor Angela Merkel has claimed there are 'no-go areas' in Germany, leaving ministers speechless.

Officials have previously dismissed the notion there are places in the country that police and other outsiders can't visit.

But Merkel said she favours a zero-tolerance policy on crime that includes preventing no-go areas, which she called 'areas where nobody dares to go' in an interview with n-tv on Monday.

The German leader has spoken of no-go areas in the country but has not named specific locations after Monday's remarks

The chancellor said some areas are so bad that police, along with other outsiders fear entering them

'There are such areas and one has to call them by their name and do something about them,' she said.

Asked to name the areas, Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters today 'the chancellor's words speak for themselves.'

Interior Ministry spokesman Johannes Dimroth likewise declined to identify no-go areas, saying security was a matter for local not federal authorities.