A former bodyguard of Adolf Hitler who witnessed the Nazi dictator's final hours has died in Germany aged 96.

Rochus Misch was the last survivor from Hitler's bunker in Berlin.

The former SS man had operated the telephones in the bunker and had proudly reminisced about his wartime duties for the "boss".

He had called Hitler "a very normal man... he was no brute, he was no monster", according to the Associated Press news agency.