A man has been seriously injured after being stabbed at Berlin’s Holocaust memorial, while an 18-year-old Russian citizen was arrested in Brandenburg for planning an attack on the Israeli embassy.
A man has been badly hurt in a stabbling at the Holocaust memorial in Berlin, just a few hours after an 18-year-old was reportedly arrested in Brandenburg on suspicion of planning an attack on the Israeli embassy in the capital.
Police said they were investigating the attack at the memorial, which occured at around 6 pm in the field of 2,700 grey concrete slabs in the heart of Berlin that was set up in remembrance of the six million Jews that died in the Holocaust.
The previous day, police arrested a man with Russian citizenship who was reportedly planning an attack on the Israeli embassy.
The Federal Police and the Brandenburg State Office of Criminal Investigation arrested the man at Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) on Thursday, according to German news agency dpa. According to various media reports, the man is originally from Chechnya and the planning of the attack was politically motivated but was not at an advanced stage. The decisive tip-off for the attack is reported to have come from abroad, with an Islamist motive currently being investigated.
Reports further elaborated that an attack with a knife or explosives may have been planned, with the Israeli embassy in Berlin considered a possible target. The arrest of the 18-year-old at the airport suggests that he had abandoned his alleged attack plan.
The suspect was brought before the magistrate at Brandenburg an der Havel district court on Friday, who issued an arrest warrant. Brandenburg police released a statement saying that they are working closely with other security authorities at state and federal level. The man is being investigated on the suspicion of preparing a “serious act of violence endangering the state.”
Our journalists are working on this story and will update it as more information becomes available.
