The goat has been attacked many times before but survived every festive period since 2016 under 24-hour security.

Spokeswoman Rebecca Steiner said she was devastated by the attack on the seasonal institution.

"It's just a week before Christmas and I cannot understand how a person can carry out this kind of attack to a Christmas symbol known all over the world," she told the BBC.

The Gavlebocken (Gavle goat) has been put up in the city's central Castle Square every Christmas since 1966 and has become a regular target for arsonists and vandals.

It has survived an attempted kidnapping via helicopter and been rammed by a car, but it has mostly been targeted by fire. It was burned down at midnight on New Year's Eve in its very first year of existence in 1966.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59696442