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A car boot seller who sparked outrage by displaying a Nazi-era German flag has said he didn’t know the Swastika on it wasn’t still being used by the German armed forces.

Anthony Williams was spoken to by police after the large red flag, which displays the Nazi symbol, was put up on his stall at the Bryn y Gog car boot in Wrexham on Sunday.

But today Mr Williams, 56, claimed he had not intended to offend anyone. He also denied he had told organisers who asked him to remove it that he had put it up ‘in support of Manchester’ after last week’s terrorist outrage which killed 22 people.

He told the Daily Post the flag had been displayed alongside the American Southern states’ Confederate flag at around 6am when he and his friend first arrived.

Mr Williams said he had owned the Confederate flag for more than 35 years and that he used it in American civil war enactments, but that the German flag had been brought by his friend.

He claimed people had expressed an interest in buying it - including a couple he believed were German - and that there had been no complaints until the organisers asked him to take it down towards the end of the sale.

And he told the Daily Post he was not aware of why it might cause offence.

(Image: The Swastika on display at the Bryn-Y-Gog car boot sale in Wrexham)

Mr Williams, of Wrexham, said: “I was told it was the German navy, which as far as I could see were not involved in the same way the SS were in the Second World War.

“I saw that it had the Swastika on it. But I don’t know if it’s not still used today. I might be a bit of an idiot for not looking it up properly, but I won’t make that mistake again.”

He said that he was not anti-Islamic, adding: “What I said was I’m not happy about what happened in Manchester and I’m against Islamic State, not against Muslims because I have Muslim friends, and I’ve also been a pastor of a church and had a copy of the Koran.

“I was asked the once to take it down. I did not refuse to take it down. It was late on in the day. The flag had been up since six in the morning. Muslims and whoever else had walked past and never said anything about it.”

The flag, which was on sale for £4, has since been thrown away by the friend who brought it with him to the car boot sale.

The sale organisers banned Mr Williams from returning to the event, at which he says he was just selling CDs and records.

A North Wales Police spokesman said Mr Williams had been spoken to, and that an “out of court resolution” would be sought between him and the car boot sale organisers.