Syrian refugee family who found safety in Germany name their baby Angela Merkel

A Syrian refugee family in Germany have named their newly born daughter Angela Merkel Muhammed, in gratitude to the Chancellor.

Asia Faray and Khalid Muhammed arrived in Germany with their four children at the height of the refugee crisis in 2015 thanks to Ms Merkel's open-door asylum policy.

Angela is the couple's fifth child.

She was born on the 16 August measuring 53 centimetres (21 inches) and weighing 3,920 grams (8.6 pounds), said a spokeswoman for St Franziskus Hospital in the city of Münster, in north west Germany.

"The first name of the girl is Angela, the second is Merkel. With this decision, the parents wanted to show their thankfulness to the Chancellor," she added.

It is not the first time a refugee family in Germany has named its newly born baby after Ms Merkel.

In February 2015, Angela Merkel Ade was born in a hospital in the northern city of Hanover. Her mother had emigrated from Ghana to Germany.

Ms Merkel was widely criticised in Germany for her open-door policy and she lost support over concerns from some voters about how the country could absorb an influx of more than a million migrants.

With fewer refugees and migrants now crossing into Germany, Ms Merkel's popularity has risen again with opinion polls giving her conservative alliance a 15-point lead over her opponents ahead of next month's parliamentary election.