German prosecutors probe Yazidi woman's claims about meeting former IS captor in Germany

German federal prosecutors say they're taking seriously a Yazidi woman's claim that she ran into her former Islamic State captor in Germany, but say they need more information to identify him.

Spokeswoman Frauke Koehler told The Associated Press on Saturday that the woman's statement to authorities "wasn't precise enough" and when they tried to follow up, she had left Germany.

Ashwaq Haji Hami, 19, told the The Associated Press she was abused in Iraq by an IS member called Abu Humam, whose real name she said was Mohammed Rashid. After fleeing, she allegedly encountered him in Germany in 2016 and again this February. She reported the incidents to police, but fearing for her safety, she moved back to Iraq in June.

Koehler said prosecutors want to speak to her again if she returns to Germany.

The Yazidi community in Iraq comprised some 550,000 people before it was scattered by the IS offensive.

IS militants murdered Yazidis in their thousands in 2014 and abducted thousands of women and teenage girls to make them sex slaves.

According to the religious affairs ministry in Iraqi Kurdistan, some 360,000 Yazidis were displaced by the fighting with 100,000 leaving the country.

Of 6,417 Yazidis reported kidnapped by the jihadists, just 3,207 have been rescued or managed to escape their captors. Half of those still missing are women and girls, the ministry said.

It also said that to date 47 mass graves of Yazidis massacred by IS have been discovered.

UN investigators have said the IS assault on the Yazidis was a premeditated effort to exterminate an entire community - crimes that amount to genocide.