GETTY/CEN The Karmel Church in Germany where the bizarre incident took place

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Marcelo Lohbeck, 35, and Friederike were about to say ‘I do’ in front of 90 guests at the Karmel Church in western Germany when the asylum seeker stormed in and “fondled the statue of Mary”. Mr Lohbeck, 35, described the distressing scenes. He said: “At the beginning of the ceremony, a man with a thick jumper and a hat on came into the church and sat in the back row.

CEN The wedding was disturbed by the Syrian migrant

“Shortly afterwards, he stood up and wandered around the candles. He laughed in a disturbing manner and then fondled the statue of Mary. “He had been speaking in Arabic and partly English. He then started destroying the flowers and kept shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’.” The wedding quickly turned into a dramatic fight scene when the groom’s uncle Ludger A, a 57-year-old police officer tried to intervene. But the Syrian man refused to leave and a police officer was left with injuries to his face.

Angela Merkel in pictures Tue, August 8, 2017 Angela Merkel has served as German Chancellor since 2005 and Leader of the Christian Democratic Union since 2000. We take a look at her political career in pictures. Play slideshow AFP/Getty Images 1 of 83 Angela Merkel through the years

GETTY German police struggled to get the man out of the church