German Chancellor Angela Merkel has confirmed that she was targeted by hackers thought to be Russian military intelligence (GRU).

German magazine report that the GRU had obtained emails from her constituency office in a hacking attack in 2015.

“It pains me,” she said, describing the hacking as “outrageous”.

But the German chancellor added that she would continue to “strive for good relations with Russia”.

The 2015 hacking reported by Spiegel magazine involved a theft of data from computers in the German parliament.

In 2018, the government’s IT network also came under attack, amid reports that Russian hackers were also to blame.

The Russian government has denied hacking the German parliament’s data.