A Syrian refugee arrested over the stabbing of a tourist at Berlin's Holocaust memorial had been planning "to kill Jews", prosecutors said on Saturday, the day before an election which is expected to see a surge in support for the anti-migrant AfD.

Investigators say the suspect in a stabbing attack at Berlin’s Holocaust Memorial that left a Spanish tourist seriously injured is a Syrian refugee who apparently wanted to kill Jews.

The police said they had detained a suspect in the assault, which occurred among the labyrinth of concrete slabs at one of the German capital’s most sacrosanct sites.