A former member of the Nazi SS has gone on trial in Germany charged with the wartime murder of three civilians in the Netherlands.

Heinrich Boere, 88, has previously acknowledged shooting dead three people in 1944, as reprisals for attacks by the Dutch resistance.

The trial went ahead after an appeal court ruled he was fit to be tried.

Anti-Nazi protesters gathered outside the court in Aachen as the trial opened.

Relatives of some of the victims were also in court.