Nazi-era swastika unearthed in Germany

Construction workers in the northern German city of Hamburg have unearthed a huge concrete swastika dating back to the Nazi era.

A giant Swastika-shaped foundation sits on construction site in Hamburg, northern Germany, Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2017 Source: AAP

Construction workers in the German city of Hamburg have unearthed a huge concrete swastika dating back to the Nazi era.

The workers had been digging to make way for the construction of new changing rooms at a sports field when they struck upon the four-by-four-metre swastika some 40cm under the earth, Joachim Schirmer, head of the Billstedt-Horn sports club, said.

Schirmer said the sports field had been the site of a Nazi monument that had been destroyed decades earlier.

The swastika is so big that the excavator the construction workers were using was not powerful enough to remove it, Schirmer said.

He added that authorities would use a pneumatic drill to destroy it before removing it in smaller pieces.

The monument preservation office has been informed and officials are en route to the site to remove the swastika, a spokeswoman for the district authority said.