A man in the southern German city of Nuremberg who had spent the night in a paper recycling container was severely injured on Friday after waste management workers emptied the container into a garbage truck without realizing he was inside.

Workers stopped the vehicle's compression mechanism and rushed to rescue the 41-year-old man after hearing his cries for help from the back of the truck.

A Nuremberg police spokesman said the man, who had been sheltering from the cold under the paper, had suffered serious and life-threatening internal injuries.

The local BR24 news website quoted police as saying that the workers could not have known that the man was in the paper container.

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Growing problem

The case underlines the plight of homeless people in Germany, whose numbers have been growing rapidly in recent years, partly as a result of a large influx of refugees in 2015.

Figures released by Germany's federal working group for homeless persons' assistance (BAG) show that some 860,000 people in Germany, including some 440,000 recognized as refugees, were without housing in 2016 — a rise of 150 percent since 2014.

The BAG says that while increased immigration has exacerbated the problem, the main cause is a misguided government housing policy.

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