FACEBOOK•GETTY Maria Ladenburger was murdered in the German city of Freiburg

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An Afghan reguee has been arrested over the horrifying death of the German teenager. In Freiburg - the ancient university city where Maria Ladenburger was studying before her brutal death in October - a demonstration was held on Sunday by the hard-right anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in which she was portrayed as "the victim of Merkel's welcome culture”. Social media is also burning up with hate messages directed at refugees in the wake of the arrest of the 17-year-old Afghan boy whose DNA has linked him to the murder of Maria, the daughter of a high ranking EU legal official. One tweet from Eli Dahl quoted Angela Merkel from her election campaign in 2006 when she told the House of Representatives: "Zero tolerance when it comes to interior security, Ladies and Gentlemen."

He wrote: “What's interior security like in 2016, Mrs Merkel?” Another tweeter said: “The Federal Government remains silent! NOT JUST Maria Ladenburger would still be alive if it wasn't for Merkel's refugee policies.” European Parliament president Martin Schulz also came under fire with Bonke Kolja saying: “Was Martin Schulz ("What refugees bring our country is worth more than gold') at the funeral of Maria Ladenburger?” The rising tide of public anger makes it increasingly harder for the chancellor - who will seek a fourth term in power in the general election next year - to justify setting no ceiling on the numbers of refugees who may yet arrive. Currently there are well over one million in the country, several hundred of whom are said by intelligence agencies to be sleepers for the terrorist group Islamic State.

TWITTER Twitter users have reacted with fury at the death

What's interior security like in 2016, Mrs Merkel? Twitter



Maria worked part-time between her studies in helping migrants in the city but police believe she never met her killer before the night he ambushed her as she rode home from a party on her bicycle, raped her then drowned her in a river. The suspect came to Germany in 2015 as an unaccompanied minor. He is on remand and will stand trial for rape and murder next year after charges are brought at the conclusion of the police investigation. At the spontaneous demo by AfD supporters on Sunday one elderly man yelled; "We are outraged at the murder of Maria and the fact that it involved an asylum seeker."

TWITTER Other users asked whether Schulz was at Maria's funeral

FACEBOOK Maria was raped and murdered while on her way back from a party

Three hundred counter demonstrators converged on the small group of AfD supporters and police kept the two sides at bay. But the Internet is harder to police and 3,000 members of the Facebook inititative 'Refugee Help Freiburg' - which Maria was a member of - took down their page on Saturday following numerous threats from neo-Nazis spewing hatred against migrants. "This is exactly what liberal and open-to-the-world people of Freiburg had feared," said the local paper in a comment about the on-line venom now coirculating against all refugees. The BZ daily in Berlin said neo-Nazis were "rubbing their hands with glee" at Maria's fate, adding; "This terrible case is a perfect incentive for their propaganda: every refugee is a potential criminal and terrorist! What else? It is a disgusting, characterless reaction." Baden-Württemberg's Interior Minister Thomas Strobl (CDU) praised the police and said: "The alleged offender must now - regardless of his nationality, regardless of the question since when he has lived in Germany - be in court and answer before the law." The chairman of the DPoIG police union, Rainer Wendt, said her killing could have been prevented. He told Bild newspaper: ”We wouldn't have this victim, and so many others, if our country had been better prepared for the dangers that always go along with massive immigration.”

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