Area Law Enforcement
Approximately fifty vehicles have been marked with what appears to be human blood in the German municipality of Hanau near Frankfurt, according to authorities.
Cars, exterior walls and mailboxes were defaced, occasionally with swastikas, they reported in a statement.
Officers say they were alerted late on Wednesday evening, when a resident observed that a car in the Lamboy area of Hanau had been smeared with a red-colored substance.
The substance had been applied in the pattern of a swastika, they stated.
Law enforcement then discovered multiple other smeared vehicles and house walls in the surrounding area.
Swastikas are prohibited in Germany under legislation banning the public exhibition of symbols from the Nazi era.
Police say early analysis suggest the fluid was probably human blood.
"At present there remains no lead as to its source; investigators are not yet cognizant of any harm in connection with the occurrence," they commented.
Local authorities announced they were trying "to solve the incident" and have appealed to the community for information.
A senior political figure stated the incident rendered him without words and needed to be addressed promptly.
"This act strikes at the very heart of Hanau and reawakens the trauma of the extremist attack in 2020," he stated on online, recalling the killing of nine people by a gunman targeting residents of foreign heritage in five years prior.
