World Bulletin / News Desk

German demonstrators booed Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday as she arrived at a refugee centre hit by violent far-right protests, according to an AFP reporter.

Around 200 people in the eastern town of Heidenau jeered Merkel from across a road, shouting far-right slogans including "traitor, traitor" and "we are the mob".

Amid heightened tensions in the town over the opening of a new shelter for asylum-seekers in a former DIY store, Merkel's vice-chancellor Sigmar Gabriel had blasted far-right protesters as a "mob" during a visit to the town Monday.

Several drivers honked their car horns as they passed the spot where Merkel was standing, following calls to do so by extremist groups on social media.

Merkel was welcomed by Saxony state premier Stanislaw Tillich and the town's mayor Juergen Opitz and later held talks with refugees and social workers at the centre.

Chancellor Merkel vowed that Germany would have "no tolerance" for "shameful and vile" attacks on asylum-seekers, after a wave of violent protests.

"There will be no tolerance of those who question the dignity of other people," she said in the small eastern town of Heidenau which saw far-right riots against police guarding a new refugee shelter.

"The more people who make that clear... through their work and also in conversations with acquaintances, friends and families, the stronger we will be and the better we will be able to address this task" of caring for refugees.

For two nights in a row last weekend, clashes erupted between police and far-right thugs protesting the opening of the new centre for refugees.