The Brief

HANAU, Germany - German police announced Thursday that they had detained a 31-year-old man suspected of using his own blood to paint swastikas on numerous cars, mailboxes, and building facades in the central town of Hanau.

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Police spokesman Thomas Leipold said officers were alerted Wednesday night when a man reported that he noticed the shape of a swastika applied in a reddish liquid on the hood of a parked car. Police said that almost 50 cars had been defaced in a similar way.

A special test quickly revealed that the substance was human blood.

The display of Nazi emblems, including the swastika, is illegal in Germany.

On Thursday afternoon, police said, the man, a Romanian citizen whose name was not given in line with German privacy rules, was arrested at his

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