ONLOOKERS IN GERMANY cheered a fire at accommodation planned to house migrants, local police have said.

The incident happened in the town of Bautzen in the east of the country in the early hours of this morning.

German broadcaster DW has said that the reason for the fire is still unclear.

Officials also reported that a number of people attempted to prevent firefighters from extinguishing the blaze, with three people being expelled from the area and two others being taken into custody.

A police spokesperson said that the group showed “unabashed delight” at the fire.

This follows a separate incident in the Saxon town of Clausnitz, when a group of around 100 people attempted to block a bus carrying newly arrived asylum seekers to their accommodation.

German politicians in the country have moved quickly to express their outrage at the incidents.

“Racists are pathetic lawbreakers, a disgrace for our country. Shame on you!” deputy foreign minister Michael Roth wrote on Twitter.

“Those who shamelessly applaud when houses burn and scare refugees to death are displaying disgusting and revolting behaviour,” Justice Minister Heiko Maas tweeted.

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Maas told media group RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland he was stunned by the growing brazenness of far-right groups, which he said crossed the line of free expression to become a threat to public safety.

“Verbal radicalism is a prelude to physical violence,” he said, noting there were more than 1,000 criminal acts against refugee shelters recorded in Germany last year, when the country let in nearly 1.1 million asylum seekers.

- Contains reporting from AFP