The former home of a German cannibal has been destroyed in a fire, police say.

Armin Meiwes was convicted almost two decades ago of murder and disturbing the peace of the dead, with both crimes having been committed at the half-timber house.

The cause of the overnight fire in the German town of Rotenburg an der Fulda is not clear, but police said they are not ruling out arson, according to news agency dpa.

The house had been empty for years.

The town’s mayor, Christian Grunwald, said he hoped its destruction would stop people visiting the site.

He said: “The ruin must be removed permanently. It must not become a pilgrimage site.”

Read more:
Evidence of ‘cannibalism’ in Berlin murder, says prosecutor

Meiwes, a former computer technician, was arrested in December 2002 over the death of Bernd Juergen Brandes.

He claimed Mr Brandes had answered his internet post seeking a young man for “slaughter and consumption” and that he wanted to be stabbed to death after drinking a bottle of cold medicine to help him lose consciousness.

Meiwes captured the killing on video.

In 2004, he was convicted of manslaughter and jailed for eight and a half years in prison but, following an appeal by prosecutors, was given a life sentence for murder in 2006 after a retrial.

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