A Bavarian politician has sent a bus carrying 31 refugees to Berlin to "send a sign" to Angela Merkel over the country's refugee policy.

Peter Dreier said he had warned Merkel that his district Landshut was reaching its capacity for housing asylum seekers last year and had pledged to send any that couldn't be accommodate on buses to Berlin.

Mr Dreier said he wanted to "send a sign that refugee policy cannot continue like this".

It comes amid ongoing concerns about how Germany will deal with the 1.1 million asylum-seekers that arrived in the country last year.

The bus arrived in front of Mrs Merkel's chancellery in the centre of Berlin.

Several police officers led the refugees from their bus directly on to another waiting nearby.

It was reported that the migrants did not know the trip had been organised as a stunt to criticise Mrs Merkel's refugee policy and were upset to find out they had been used to make a political point to the federal government.

Landshut spokesman Elmar Stoettner told The Associated Press that the refugees on the bus had been granted asylum in Germany and had volunteered to participate in the bus trip.

A spokesman for Merkel said Berlin had agreed to offer accommodation for the refugees for their first night in the city.