Police closed off the street near the Turkish embassy in Berlin on Tuesday as part of an investigation into vandalization that left one of its walls splattered in red, green and yellow paint – the colors of the Kurdish flag.

Four darkly dressed people threw paint bags at the embassy and then fled the scene under the cover of a smoke bomb, according to the guards.

Read more: Who are the Kurds? 

Barbed wire was also laid out on a path by the embassy, which is located across from Berlin's Tiergarten park. A taxi driver witnessed fireworks or flares burning in the bushes.

Germany is home to 3 million people of Turkish-origin, and about 750,000 ethnic Kurds.

Conflicts between Ankara and Kurds in Turkey and Syria have regularly spilled over into Germany. Turkey's offensive against the Kurdish-held enclave of Afrin in Syria has mobilized Kurds in Germany, with dozens of protests being held across the country over the past month.

 

cw/kms (dpa)