Updated

A car used by one of the leading figures in Germany's nationalist movement has gone up flames overnight.

Police in the eastern city of Leipzig say they received a report in the early hours of Saturday that the vehicle was on fire.

The Alternative for Germany party said the car belonged to its co-chairwoman Frauke Petry.

The party, which has stoked anti-migrant sentiment in Germany, regularly claims that it is subjected to violence from far-left extremists.

Leipzig police spokeswoman Katharina Geyer said the cause of the fire was still being investigated and neither arson nor a technical problem had been ruled out.