A criminal inquiry has been launched in Germany after the death of a politician – originally thought to have been suicide – was ruled to have been a murder.

Walter Lübcke, 65, was the head of the regional council in the city of Kassel. His body was found on Sunday morning outside his house in Istha, with a bullet hole indicating that he had been shot in the head.

Prosecutors say that they have no motive but have confirmed that the shots were fired by a short-range weapon.

Lübcke was a leading member of the ruling centre-right CDU and had been active for over a decade.

He came into the limelight in 2015 when he said he was in favour of housing refugees, at a time when large numbers of asylum seekers were coming into Germany from war-torn Syria.

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