Arrests in Austria camp attacks

Police in Austria have arrested five teenagers after commemorations at a former concentration camp were disrupted.

Witnesses said the group gave Nazi salutes and shouted "Heil Hitler" on Saturday at the Ebensee concentration camp near Salzburg.

They also reportedly shot pellets at French visitors, police said.

Austrian Interior Minister Maria Fekter said she was taking the incident "very seriously", and called for a probe.

The incident took place before a commemoration for the 64th anniversary of the liberation of Austrian concentration camps.

'Shameful'

Between 1943 and 1945, Ebensee was a satellite camp of Mauthausen concentration camp.

Inmates were forced to build enormous underground tunnels in which armament works were to be housed. More than 8,000 died of malnutrition, disease and exhaustion.

Barbara Prammer, president of the Austrian parliament, called the incident "beyond belief, dastardly and shameful".

She called for a rigorous investigation of the incident, saying the international reputation of Austria was at stake.

Regional police chief Alois Lissl said none of the boys were previously known to police, nor had links been established so far between them and far-right organisations.

But he said their actions were "in clear violation of the law" banning neo-Nazi activities.

The group, aged between 14 and 17, have now been released under court surveillance, he said.