A 96-year-old former SS officer has been charged with Holocaust denial after he implied Jews killed in a massacre he took part in were to blame for their deaths and questioned whether six million Jews had really been murdered.

Karl Münter told German TV broadcaster ARD he was part of the SS unit that massacred 86 people in April 1944 in northern France in retaliation for the sabotage of a railway.

Unaware he was being filmed, he said the 86 people who died were responsible for their deaths because they ran away. 

In a statement, prosecutors in Lower Saxony said: "The accused did not dispute giving the information to journalists but he said he did not know that the interview was recorded and would be later broadcast.

“He also did not view his statements as incitement and therefore thought he would not be liable to prosecution.”

German prosecutors dropped their case against Mr Münter over the killings themselves because he had already been tried and sentenced for his part in the massacre in absentia by a French military court in 1949.

This was later commuted to imprisonment but the conviction means he cannot be tried again over the deaths.

Holocaust denial is illegal in Germany and carries a sentence of up to five years in prison.