German authorities said a Syrian suspect was intending “to kill Jews” when he stabbed a tourist in Berlin on Friday, the latest in a string of attacks by refugees and asylum seekers ahead of a crucial election on Sunday.

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.

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.