Five-year-old girl killed – Arrested suspect was babysitter

In the case of the five-year-old who was killed in Berlin, the child's 19-year-old babysitter is a suspect. The man took care of the four children of the family on Tuesday afternoon in a playground in the northern district of Pankow, said a spokeswoman for the public prosecutor's office on Wednesday. He then left when he was five. He said the reason was that the child had to go to the toilet. He asked other people to take care of the other three children. The German-Turk then came back without the girl and said he had lost her.

The alarmed police then started a large search operation with more than 100 officers and a helicopter. After a few hours, the lifeless girl was found a few hundred meters away in the Bürgerpark. It had at least one stab wound. A resuscitation was unsuccessful. The child was flown by helicopter to a hospital, where he died.

Shortly thereafter, the police arrested the 19-year-old babysitter. The mother of the killed girl and the mother of the babysitter are friends, the spokeswoman said.

The child has been missing since Tuesday afternoon and was found in the Pankow public park in the evening. It was taken to the hospital by helicopter, but died there. According to the information, the victim has German-Polish-Turkish nationality. A homicide squad has taken over the investigation.

Police officers had secured traces in the Pankow Citizens Park until late in the evening. Now possible witnesses are to be questioned. It was initially unclear when the autopsy of the girl's body would take place. After the five-year-old died, people put up candles near where she was found, and a yellow flower and a small cuddly toy were discarded.

During the night, Berlin's governing mayor Franziska Giffey expressed her condolences to the relatives. "I'm shocked," wrote the SPD politician on Twitter. Her thoughts are with the little girl's parents and her loved ones. "It breaks my heart and I am deeply sad." The police are investigating at high pressure. The district mayor of Pankow, Sören Benn (left), tweeted: "It's so horrible,

Editor's note: At first it was said that the girl was four years old.