German 'Brevik' shop causes outcry after Norway killings

BERLIN: A clothes store popular among neo-Nazis has caused an uproar in a German town because of its name -- "Brevik" and its similarity to the name of Norwegian gunman Anders Behring Breivik.

The shop, which opened last week in the centre of Chemnitz, in eastern Germany, is a subsidiary of the clothing and accessory chain Thor Steinar, favoured by young far-right extremists.

"Such a thing is shocking and completely unacceptable," Katja Uhlemann, a spokeswoman for the town, said.

"For us, as a town, it's clear, we do not want such a shop," she added saying that all the legal possibilities for action against the store were being examined.

The Thor Steinar label has 13 shops in Germany, mostly in the former East Germany, and all are named after Norwegian towns or villages -- Brevik is a village on the south-eastern Norwegian coast.

The controversy has arisen at a sensitive time in Germany as the country tries to come to terms with the discovery last November of a neo-Nazi gang blamed for the murders of 10 people, mostly immigrants.

The gang was based in Zwickau, not far from Chemnitz near the Czech border.

Mediatex, which markets Thor Steinar clothing, denied the shop had any link to the Norwegian gunman who killed 77 people in twin attacks last July claiming to be on a crusade against multi-culturalism and the "Muslim invasion" of Europe.

"The linguistic similarity of the names Brevik and Breivik is awkward but not deliberate and in no way must be seen as a provocation," the company said in a written statement. (AFP)