Onlookers dared refugee to jump in Germany

German police are investigating claims that a 17-year-old Somali refugee who jumped from a window in a Leipzig block of flats was taunted by his neighbours.

Refugees wait at a registration facility in Germany. Source: AAP

Police in the German state of Thuringia are investigating accusations that neighbours of a refugee encouraged him to jump to his death.

The 17-year-old Somali jumped from a window in a block of flats on Friday in the town of Schmoelln, one hour south of the German city of Leipzig.

"We have received information that some onlookers stood by and watched this happen for a while and called on him to jump," local mayor Sven Schrade told local broadcaster MDR.

The comments are now being investigated, local police confirmed to dpa.

The teenager was believed to be undergoing psychiatric treatment and had gone on a rampage in the building before he jumped to his death.

But Schrade said in a Facebook post that the comments from onlookers, should they be found to be true, were "intolerable".

Over the last year, Germany has been providing shelter for about one million refugees fleeing wars in the Middle East and Africa.

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