*Neo-Nazis 'cut swastika in girl's arm'*

 From correspondents in Berlin

November 24, 2007 06:36am
Article from: Agence France-Presse

NEO-Nazis allegedly carved a swastika into a 17-year-old girl's hip in
eastern Germany after she came to the aid of an immigrant girl they were
pushing around.

The girl told police three young skinheads held her down while a fourth
cut the Nazi emblem into her flesh with a long thin piece of metal,
leaving a 5cm-long scar, police spokeswoman Heidi Hennig said.

The gang then tried to slash her face, threatening to cut the letters SS
into her cheek, but she managed to run away.

The teenager was attacked in the town of Mittweida after she tried to
stop the group of neo-Nazis shoving around the frightened six-year-old
from an immigrant family who was crying.

The prosecutor said the attack happened on November 3, but the victim
waited several days to inform her mother.

"A medical examination showed she could not have inflicted the scars
herself," Ms Hennig said.

The police have located the little girl who was harrassed by the group
and she has confirmed the events, she said.

According to the victim, several people watched the attack from the
balconies of their apartments.

The interior minister of the state of Saxony, Albrecht Buttolo, has
called on witnesses to come forward, describing the attack as "very bad
news".

Germany has in recent years watched in alarm as violent crimes linked to
the far-right have increased, along with political support for the
neo-Nazi National Democratic Party.