Authorities in the Netherlands are investigating several images of young men dressed in “Nazi” clothing.
Pictures on WhatsApp showed a group of people walking around the municipality of Urk on Saturday evening wearing military uniforms and carrying weapons.
In one image, a man pretends to shoot another person, who is dressed in prisoner clothing and is wearing a Star of David, a well-known Jewish symbol.
In another photo on Snapchat, eight young people pose in a row in an industrial park while wearing clothes that resemble German Nazi clothing.
Local officials have said that the group was protesting against COVID-19 restrictions in the Netherlands.
In a statement, the municipality of Urk said the whole community “highly despised” the groups’ actions.
“This behaviour is not only highly reprehensible and extremely inappropriate, but it is also offensive to large population groups,” the statement read.
“As far as the municipality of Urk is concerned, a very clear boundary has been crossed with this tasteless action.”
Authorities said they were in discussion with the police and the Public Prosecution Service to investigate the incident further.
Urk officials suggested that they would like to speak to the young people involved about “joint responsibility”.
“We understand that these young people want their voices to be heard about the impact of the current and upcoming coronation measures,” said the town’s mayor, Cees van den Bos. “However, we have no understanding for the way in which they are doing this.”
“Not only the municipality of Urk but the entire community completely disapprove of this method of protest.”
