The suspect behind a gruesome knife attack at Berlin’s Holocaust Memorial said he wanted to “kill people out of hatred of Jews,” after cutting a tourist’s throat, police have said. The knife-wielding asylum seeker, said to be a refugee from Syria, reportedly tried slitting the throat of a 30-year-old Spanish tourist from behind in a brazen attack Friday evening.
German outlet Bild has named the suspect as 19-year-old Wassim al M. The victim, believed to be from Bilbao, suffered life threatening injuries and was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery.
Berlin police said the victim has been injured with a sharp object at around 6pm and was rushed to hospital and placed in an artificial coma. He is now said to be in a stable condition.
Wassim al M was already known to Saxon police for multiple offences but was not classified as a repeat or serious offender, Bild reported. The region’s interior ministry said his previous crime were of “general criminality” and had no political motive.
But police say during his interrogation, the attacker reportedly admitted he had been planning the attack for weeks and was driven by a hatred of Jews. A joint statement from the police and the Berlin prosecutors said: “According to previous investigations and current knowledge, there are apparently connections with the Middle East conflict.
“According to current knowledge, in particular based on corresponding statements made by the accused to the police, the plan to kill Jews is said to have been maturing in his mind for several weeks.” Investigators found a Quran, a prayer rug, and a hunting knife they believe was used in the attack, in his backpack, according to Bild.
The suspect fled the scene after the attack, sparking a massive polive manhunt. He was arrested three hours later near the crime scane, still covered in blood and carrying the suspected weapon.
According to asyum records seen by Bild, Wassim al M. arrived in Germany as an unaccompanied minor in 2023. He claimed to be fleeing persecution from the Assad regime and had been imprisoned and tortured. He was granted refugee protection status in October 2024.
He was said to be living in a refugee shelter in Leipzig’s Zentrum-Nord district with around 230 others. Police said there is currently no evidence that he is connected to other people or organisation, according to Spiegel, another German outlet.
The attack took place at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, a field of 2,700 grey concrete slabs near the Brandenburg Gate in the heart of Berlin, which honours the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust under the direction of Nazi Germany. On Friday, a police statement said: “At around 6pm, a man was seriously injured by an unknown person at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in #Mitte.
“The injured man was taken to hospital. Rescue workers are on site caring for several people who had to witness the events. Investigations are ongoing at the crime scene.”
It is not yet clear whether the victim, who has been taken to hospital with wounds not believed to be life-threatening, was known to the attacker, reported the BBC. Pictures at the scene showed large numbers of police and what appeared to be blood-stained clothing at the memorial.
Other pictures showed police armed with machine guns. The attack came two days before Germans vote in a national election.