Officials and residents have attended a solemn Mass to honor a child and a man killed in a knife attack in Germany, an assault that amplified the debate about migration ahead of the Feb. 23 general election.

A 28-year-old man from Afghanistan has been arrested following a knife attack in a park in the German city of Aschaffenburg on Wednesday in which two people were killed, including a toddler, police said.

Germany’s opposition leader has vowed to bar people from entering the country without proper papers and to step up deportations if he is elected as chancellor next month.

Police identified the suspect as an Afghan man. Politicians gearing up for an election responded with comments about migration and law and order.

The deportation of the suspect in Wednesday's deadly stabbing in the southern German city of Aschaffenburg failed due to a missed deadline, Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann has said. Hermann said Germany's Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) rejected the Afghan national's application for asylum in June 2023 and ordered him to be deported to Bulgaria under EU migration rules.

With their anti-migrant tirades, the establishment parties are pursuing two goals: two goals: dividing the working class and building a police state.

Germany's parliament on Wednesday narrowly approved a call by Chancellor Olaf Scholz's main challenger to turn back many more migrants at the country's borders, with the help of a far-right party — a move that drew strong criticism of the front-runner in the campaign for next month's election.

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel criticised the leader of her Christian Democrats (CDU), Friedrich Merz, for drawing on support from the far-right to pass a motion in parliament, in a statement on Thursday.

Police detain a 28-year-old Afghan after the attack in the Bavarian city of Aschaffenburg.

A 28-year-old man from Afghanistan was arrested following a knife attack on Wednesday in a park in the German city of Aschaffenburg in which two people were killed, including a toddler, police and the state health minister said.

A 28-year-old Afghan man is in police custody after attacking a group of kindergarteners in the German city of Aschaffenburg, killing two people, including a 2-year-old.

Interior ministers of Germany's 16 states called on Monday for changes in how the psychologically ill are dealt with following a fatal knife attack in Aschaffenburg in Bavaria last week. Potential criminals needed to be identified at an early stage and there had to be better exchange of information between government bodies,