After an intensive search, the police in Germany detained a suspect in a Friday stabbing attack at Berlin’s iconic Holocaust memorial that left one person seriously injured.
The assault, two days before a pivotal national election, occurred in the labyrinth of concrete stelae that make up the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, located across the street from the U.S. Embassy and one of the capital’s most sacrosanct sites.
Police said they were verifying the arrested person’s identity and that the investigation was ongoing.
The injured man, a 30-year-old Spaniard, was taken to the hospital, and rescue workers were treating people who witnessed the event for shock, the police said in a statement.
The expansive memorial, described as a “place of remembrance and warning” by Berlin’s tourism website, covers more than four-and-a-half acres and contains 2,711 concrete slabs of varying heights.
Photos published by local news media showed a swarm of emergency vehiclesaround the memorial, illuminated by the glow of blue lights.
The attack comes as Germans prepare to vote in parliamentary elections Sunday that may reshape the country’s political landscape. Frustration over Germany’s stagnant economy and dissatisfaction with immigration have pushed Germany’s far-right party, Alternative for Germany, or AfD, high in the polls.
The AfD party, which has been linked to neo-Nazis, has promised to stop migration and deport immigrants.
Over the last year, Germany has endured a string of seemingly unrelated attacks carried out by immigrants from Afghanistan and the Middle East.
Last week, an asylum seeker from Afghanistan crashed a car into a union demonstration in Munich, injuring dozens in the city, where global figures had gathered for a security conference.
And in December, a Saudi Arabian citizen plowed his car through a Christmas market in Magdeburg, killing six people and injuring hundreds more.
Christopher F. Schuetze contributed reporting.
