Germany must admit that it underestimated the threat of far-right terror for too long, the president of the Bundestag told lawmakers on Thursday.

The country must do more to smash far-right networks, while also addressing the problem of Islamophobia in society, Wolfgang Schäuble told Germany's lower legislature.

Schäuble, addressing a parliamentary debate on the Hanau attacks, called for "sincerity from the state, which must admit to having underestimated the extreme right-wing danger for too long."

"The decisive answer to this must be to uncover radical networks with all constitutional means and to smash right-wing extremist associations," said Schäuble, adding that the state must "finally get better at consistently enforcing the law".

DW's Michaela Küfner followed proceedings in the Bundestag and said that this was "the moment it was recognized that the [far-right] threat had, in teh past, been a lot larger than was publicly debated."

Read more: Deutsche Welle