Berlin - German police say an American got so fed up with the constant mosquito-like droning from his neighbours' vuvuzelas that he threatened to kill them with an axe.

Police in the Bavarian city of Weiden said on Friday the 45-year-old man confronted his neighbours during Thursday's Netherlands-Cameroon World Cup game wielding the axe.?

They say he was so sick of the constant buzzing and honking from the vuvuzelas since the tournament began that he screamed "I will kill you" and then returned home.

German authorities took the US Army civilian employee into custody and turned him over to US military police.

The military says he has been released and the matter is in German hands.

Prosecutors are investigating whether to bring charges.

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