Fireworks during Berlin's 2017 New Year celebrations | Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty Images Germany fires back at Breitbart for report on New Year’s ‘riot’ Police called the night ‘average to quiet.’

German politicians, press and police officials say news report from the U.S. right-wing news website Breitbart that suggested a "mob" had "chanted 'Allahu Akhbar’" and set fire to a church in Dortmund have been greatly exaggerated.

"Revealed," the website read this week, "1,000-Man Mob Attack Police, Set Germany’s Oldest Church Alight on New Year’s Eve."

Local newspaper Ruhr Nachrichten, which published reports on events that happened on New Year's Eve, said its online reporting had been distorted to produce “fake news, hate and propaganda.”

And police officials described the situation that evening as "rather average to quiet" in a statement.

“We shook our heads in disbelief when we saw how this operation was politicized” by Breitbart, Gunnar Wortmann, a spokesman for the Dortmund police, told the Washington Post.

Eva Kühne-Hörmann, justice minister of the state of Hesse, said Friday that "the danger is that these stories spread with incredible speed and take on lives of their own."

Several large German companies pulled their advertising from Breitbart late last year to stem the influence of the news website.

Germany fears its elections later this year could fall victim to false reporting, fake news and a growing Russian cyber threat aimed at disrupting the vote.