Syrian suspect in Berlin stabbing wanted ‘to kill Jews,’ police say

A Syrian man arrested after a stabbing attack at Berlin’s Holocaust memorial that wounded a Spanish man had been harboring a “plan to kill Jews,” police and prosecutors say.

The 19-year-old arrested Friday with blood stains on his hands was carrying a copy of the Quran and a prayer rug, and initial investigations suggested “connections with the Middle East conflict,” they say.

The attacker approached the 30-year-old Spanish man from behind at around 6 p.m. (1700 GMT) on Friday and stabbed him in the neck with a knife, according to the investigators.

The assault took place at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, a somber grid of concrete steles located near the Brandenburg Gate and the US embassy in Berlin. The victim suffered life-threatening injuries to his neck and had to be placed in an artificial coma but is no longer in critical condition.

The Syrian suspect came to Germany in 2023 as an unaccompanied minor, police say. He was granted asylum and lived in the eastern city of Leipzig, according to the investigators.