A man has been arrested after ripping the head off a waxwork figure of Hitler in Germany.

The 41-year-old German pushed past two security guards on the opening day of the Berlin branch of Madame Tussauds.

The man tore off the head in protest at the exhibit, a police spokesman said.

Police were alerted and arrested the man, who did not resist. He is being investigated for assault and damaging property.

The waxwork dummy of a glum-looking Adolf Hitler in a mock bunker during the last days of his life has been criticised as being in bad taste.

A media preview of the new branch of Madame Tussauds on Thursday was overshadowed by a row over the exhibit.

Critics said it was inappropriate to display the Nazi dictator, who started World War Two and ordered the extermination of Europe's Jews, in a museum alongside celebrities, pop stars, world statesmen and sporting heroes.

It is illegal in Germany to show Nazi symbols and art glorifying Hitler and the exhibit was cordoned off to stop visitors posing with him.

Unobtrusive signs asked visitors to refrain from taking photos or posing with Hitler "out of respect for the millions of people who died during World War Two". Camera surveillance and museum officials were meant to stop inappropriate behaviour.

Institutions such as the foundation for Germany's central Holocaust memorial site condemned the idea of the exhibit as tasteless, saying it had been included to generate business.

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