German police apprehended a 19-year-old Syrian man on Friday evening in a stabbing at Berlin’s Holocaust memorial that left a Spanish tourist with life-threatening injuries to his neck.
The victim was placed in an induced coma but was no longer in critical condition, AFP reported on Saturday.
The suspect had a “plan to kill Jews,” police and prosecutors said.
The victim “was so seriously injured that he had to be taken by the fire brigade to hospital for emergency treatment,” Reuters quoted a police spokesperson as saying.
The victim is a 30-year-old man, the Associated Press reported.
The suspect was arrested with blood stains on his hands and carrying a Koran and a prayer rug, AFP reported, adding that initial investigations suggested “connections with the Middle East conflict.”
The Syrian came to Germany in 2023 as an unaccompanied minor, was granted asylum and lived in Leipzig, investigators said.
The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe commemorates the 6 million Jews killed by Germans and their helpers during the time of the Third Reich.
Earlier on Friday, an 18-year-old ethnic Chechen was arrested on suspicion of plotting to attack the Israeli embassy in the German capital, the Bild newspaper reported.
The investigation was the result of a tip-off from a foreign intelligence agency, according to the report, which added the suspect was detained at Berlin Brandenburg Airport while trying to flee the country.
