GERMAN police were hunting suspects following a hand grenade attack on refugee accommodation yesterday.

Tuttlingen police spokesman Thomas Kalmbach said “it was just luck” the device did not explode and nobody was harmed.

The incident took place at about 1.15am in the Black Forest town of Villingen-Schwenningen in southern Baden-Wurttemberg state.

Security guards spotted the grenade and kept residents away while police responded.

A bomb squad destroyed the device in a controlled explosion on the scene at about 5am after evacuating the 20 residents from the home.

The centre, a former army barracks, houses some 170 refugees.

Police said the grenade still contained its explosives but it was not clear whether it still had a detonator and forensics experts were investigating.

Mr Kalmbach said it was as yet unclear whether the attackers were far-right extremists, but joked that they were not from the local branch of Refugees Welcome.

In Geneva, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) warned that the number of refugees perishing at sea trying to reach Europe has risen alarmingly.

IOM spokesman Joel Millman said said that 244 refugees had drowned in the Mediterranean and Aegean seas since the start of the year, compared to 82 for the same period last year and 12 in 2014.

Mr Millman added the figures were particularly concerning since far fewer refugees — 55,000 — had attempted the crossing so far this year compared to 2015.

On Thursday the Party of the European Left (EL) — an alliance of communist and socialist parties which stands for the European Parliament — condemned the increasing criminalisation of refugees across the EU.

In a statement, the EL said refugees are fleeing wars “inspired, supported and financed by the imperialist policies of Western countries.

“They are victims of violence, impoverishment, social and cultural degradation that derive from the capitalistic policies of austerity and exploitation.”

It said that rather than policing refugees, the EU should take responsibility and allow them in.

The EL vowed to fight against the fascism, xenophobia and Islamophobia “that is fed by the unfounded criminalisation of refugees.”