German spy chief resigns after agency shreds files on neo-Nazi cell

The head of Germany’s domestic intelligence service has resigned after admitting that his agency had shredded files on a neo-Nazi cell whose killing spree targeting immigrants rocked the country late last year.

Heinz Fromm’s resignation is the latest in a series of embarrassing setbacks for Germany’s security services over their handling of the National Socialist Underground (NSU), which went undetected for more than a decade despite its murder of 10 people, mostly ethnic Turkish immigrants.

An interior ministry spokesman confirmed that Fromm would quit his post, which he has held since 2000, at the end of July.