A golden statue of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in the western German city of Wiesbaden, has been removed on security grounds after it provoked an angry response from local people.
Organisers of an arts festival whose theme this year is "Bad News" had installed the four-metre statue of Erdogan, with one arm outstretched, on a plinth in the central Square of German Unity in the western town of Wiesbaden on Monday.
But the statue got daubed with graffiti, including the slogan "Turkish Hitler", German media reported, and a few hundred residents had protested against it.
People gather around a golden statue of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stands on the Square of German Unity in Wiesbaden. Source: AAP
Police said they could no longer guarantee people's safety so firemen used a large crane to take away the statue under the cover of darkness in the early hours of Wednesday.
Some three million people with Turkish roots live in Germany and Erdogan, who in June won re-election with expanded powers, is due to make a state visit to Berlin on September 28-29 as part of efforts to improve relations strained by years of disagreement on a range of issues.
Germany condemned Turkey's arrest of some 50,000 people and the suspension or firing of 150,000 others including teachers, judges and soldiers, after a failed coup against Erdogan in 2016.
