Event: south German

Adolf Hitler's Alpine mountain retreat, known as the Eagle's Nest, was engulfed in flames on Friday night while police arrested a 33-year-old male suspect. The residence, called the Kehlsteinhaus, is above the town of Berchtesgaden. It was one of several buildings in the area used by the Nazi dictator and his entourage during World War Two. Hitler also used the area as a backdrop for propaganda films portraying him as a lover of animals and nature. Local media reported that site had been "largely destroyed", with the public urged to avoid the area.Read more on this story.

Police have arrested a 33-year-old German citizen after a fire ripped through Adolf Hitler’s former mountain retreat in Bavaria, leaving the historic Nazi meeting place – known as the Eagle’s Nest – largely destroyed.About 200 firefighters were deployed on Friday night to tackle the blaze at the Nazi dictator’s remote, purpose-built Kehlsteinhaus residence, a protected building on the peak of Obersalzberg in southern Germany.Flames rose high into the air as firefighters approached the scene to find the building “completely ablaze”, police said, adding that nobody was injured in the fire.Lisa Maier, a police spokesperson, said firefighters struggled to tackle the blaze due to its location at an altitude of 1,834 metres (6,000ft).The building, which was one of the few undamaged monuments of the Hitler era, was only accessible with “heavy breathing apparatus”, she said.The Kehlsteinhaus the morning after the fire. Photograph: Jason Tschepljakow/DPA/APBuilt by the Nazis and formally inaugurated by Hitler on his birthday in 1939, the Eagle’s Nest has been preserved as a monument to “the insanity of the regime”, according to its website.The building is only accessible via a road cut into the mountain through previously impassable terrain. Nazis would enter a tunnel and take a 124-metre brass lift buried in the mountain to get inside the building.Authorities were alerted to the fire when a smoke detector triggered a fire alarm at about 9.15pm, police said. When firefighters arrived on the scene at about 9.50pm, the entire building was engulfed in flames.Fire departments from six municipalities sent emergency personnel to tackle the blaze and the Bavarian Red Cross, the local mountain rescue service and the police also attended.No reason for the fire was given, but German media reported that investigators suspected it was the result of arson. Firefighters found no one inside the building.Efforts to fight the fire…

Police in the south German state of Bavaria have detained a suspect during a fire at Adolf Hitler's Alpine mountain retreat, the Kehlsteinhaus, also known as the Eagle's Nest.Dispatchers in Traunstein received a fire alarm from the building at 21:15 (19:15 GMT) on Friday, and firefighters found it engulfed in flames.Difficult terrain was hindering efforts to extinguish the blaze and it was still burning early on Saturday, police said, with some 200 emergency personnel deployed. There were no reports of injuries.The Nazi dictator used the retreat, which lies above the town of Berchtesgaden, as a part-time seat of government and met commanders there to plan the invasion of the USSR in 1941.A criminal investigation is under way to determine whether the suspect is connected to the fire. Hitler also used the area as a backdrop for propaganda films portraying him as a lover of animals and nature.