A 14-year-old teenager suspected of stabbing to death a 6-year-old boy was arrested on Tuesday in north-east Germany, police said.
The child's parents had reported him missing after he failed to return home from the sports field in their small community, Pragsdorf. He was found badly injured in a thicket on 14 September, but died later in hospital.
Investigators found a knife near the scene of the crime bearing traces of the victim’s DNA and, “with a very high probability,” those of the suspect, police said in a statement.
The teenager had already aroused suspicion before the DNA analysis by making contradictory statements despite being the last person to see the child alive, the police added.
The teenager must now be brought before a judge.
For the moment, police say they do not know the motive behind the crime, which comes after several child murders that have shocked public opinion in Germany.
Last March, two girls aged 12 and 13 confessed to the stabbing death of a 12-year-old classmate in the west of the country. They were not held criminally responsible because they were under the age of 14, the minimum age in Germany for conviction.
In September, the courts indicted an 11-year-old boy on suspicion of killing a 10-year-old girl in a children’s home in the southern region of Bavaria.
Also in September, a 14-year-old boy was arrested for killing a boy of the same age who was found shot dead on the grounds of a school in Bavaria.
