Authorities in Berlin have detained a teenage Syrian refugee after a man was stabbed near the city’s Holocaust Memorial late Friday – as divisive rhetoric swells over Germany’s immigration policy, ahead of a consequential national election.

A 19-year-old Syrian man suspected of stabbing a Spanish tourist at Berlin's Holocaust Memorial had planned for several weeks to kill Jewish people, Berlin police believe. The attack took place on Friday evening, with the assailant approaching the 30-year-old victim from behind before stabbing him and fleeing the scene.

German police arrested a suspect in the stabbing on Friday evening at Berlin's Holocaust memorial that seriously injured a man two days before a watershed national election.