Angela Merkel's CDU suffers Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania poll blow

Partial results show Angela Merkel's ruling CDU party has been beaten to third place by an anti-immigrant and anti-Islam party in elections in a north-eastern German state.

The Alternative fuer Deutschland (AfD) party took about 21 percent of the vote behind the Centre-left SPD's 30 percent.

The German Chancellor's CDU was backed by only about 19 percent of those who voted. 

The vote was seen as a key test before German parliamentary election in 2017.

Before the vote in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, in the former East Germany, all of Germany's other parties ruled out forming a governing coalition with  AFD.

BBC