Police helicopter spots swastika in swimming pool

A giant swastika has been spotted at the bottom of a swimming pool by a police helicopter in Brazil.

Picture: CNN

Officers investigating a kidnap in the Santa Catarina region of Brazil spotted the Nazi-associated emblem while flying overhead.

The homeowner, who has not been identified, will not face charges as they are not promoting Nazism and the symbol is on private land.

Police said the swastika symbol has been tiled in the bottom of the pool for 13 years, according to CNN.

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The swastika has been synonymous with fascism since the rise of Hitler before World War Two.

However the symbol dates back thousands of years and was used as a symbol of good fortune in religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.

Germany banned the symbol at the end of the war and even tried - unsuccessfully - to extend the ban EU-wide in 2007.

Pomerode, south of Santa Catarina, has a history of European immigration - particularly Germans and Austrians.

After the Second World War, the commander of the Sobibor and Treblinka extermination camps in Poland was tracked down to the Brazilian capital of Sao Paulo in 1967.

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