BERLIN—German authorities said a Syrian suspect was intending “to kill Jews” when he stabbed a tourist in Berlin on Friday, the latest in a string of attacks by refugees and asylum seekers that have increased in frequency ahead of a crucial election on Sunday.
The suspect, a 19-year-old refugee, was detained shortly after the attack Friday night on a Spanish tourist inside the city’s sprawling Holocaust Memorial opposite the U.S. Embassy, the Berlin police and general prosecutor said in a statement.
“A plan had matured in him over several weeks to kill Jews, which determined his choice of a place to strike,” the police and prosecutors said, based on statements the suspect had made after his arrest.
The 30-year-old victim suffered life-threatening wounds to the throat but was out of danger on Saturday after undergoing an emergency operation, authorities said.
The litany of attacks has punctuated an electoral campaign that was initially focused on economic issues, and has forced candidates to spar over immigration and crime instead. The ballot on Sunday will elect a new parliament and determine who will lead the country for the next four years.
The front-runner is the center-right Christian Democratic Union, led by would-be chancellor Friedrich Merz and credited with about 30% of votes in recent polls, followed by the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, with around 20% of the voters.
Both parties have called for a crackdown on immigration and want the country to largely close its borders to asylum seekers, but immigration is more central to the AfD’s pitch whereas Merz has put a bigger emphasis on the economy.
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