German mayor in hiding after death threat

WARIN, Germany, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- A mayor who has objected to a right-wing party setting up a training center in his town in eastern Germany has received a death threat and is in hiding.

Hans-Peter Gossel, mayor of Warin in Mecklenburg-East Pomerania, is under police protection, Deutsche Welle reports. He was named as being "available" as a victim on a neo-Nazi Web site.

The last person to be named on the site was Passau Police Chief Alois Mannichl, who was stabbed in the stomach on Dec. 13 by a suspected neo-Nazi. Mannichl survived and was recently released from the hospital, while police are searching for the suspect.

"We are treating this as a serious threat that refers directly to the attack on Mannichl," said a spokesperson for the Schwerin police, who are guarding Gossel.

The threat appears to come from Gossel's dispute with the Interim Partei Deutschland, a party that does not recognize the German government as valid. The party, which allegedly has ties to extreme right-wing groups, has been trying to buy a house in Warin, which Gossel said would be converted to a training center.