Berlin -- Berlin police said on Wednesday that they were holding a man for spray painting anti-Semitic slogans on the Holocaust Memorial in the city centre.

The 28-year-old man was detained late on Tuesday after he had defaced four of the 2,711 stelae that make up the vast memorial near the Brandenburg Gate.

Eyewitnesses reported that the man appeared to be drunk when he was detained by security officials before being handed over to police.

In February a swastika and other symbols associated with German rightwing extremism were daubed on the memorial.

The memorial was designed by US architect Peter Eisenman and completed in May 2005. Some 10,000 people on average visit daily.

Many of the stelae have revealed hairline cracks over recent months, but Eisenman and the Berlin authorities maintaining the memorial insist they are not significant.

DPA