Vandals set fire to a mouse statue that's a TV star and mascot for a German broadcaster

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BERLIN (AP) — Vandals set fire to a mouse statue that's a TV star and mascot for children's programming at German broadcaster WDR, the television station said Saturday.

The cartoon mouse, known only as “Die Maus,” is the eponymous star of “Die Sendung mit der Maus” (The Show with the Mouse) since it first aired in West Germany in 1971. Each short episode features other languages and educational segments.

The statue — featuring the character's famous orange body with brown ears, arms and legs — greets families and children outside a media building in Cologne, Germany.

A receptionist for WDR saw several young people standing around the statue in Cologne on a camera feed overnight Friday into Saturday. She then noticed flames and called the fire department, WDR said.

The fire blackened parts of the mouse's face and arm, images show. The station said a police complaint had been filed against an unidentified person.

Matthias Körnich, head of children's programming for WDR, said it's not just a figurine that was damaged.

“A piece of childhood, a symbol of joy and togetherness has been attacked,” he said. “The mouse belongs to Cologne.”

The mouse statue isn't the first German TV character to be attacked.

In 2009, the statue of a depressed German loaf of bread named Bernd das Brot (Bernd the Bread) was stolen from his traditional place outside the town hall in Erfurt, where German children’s public television channel KiKA is based.

Bernd, a cult classic in Germany, was held hostage for nearly two weeks before being discovered unharmed in an abandoned barracks.