After the killing of a five-year-old in Berlin, the homicide detectives are investigating a terrible suspicion: the 19-year-old arrested under strong suspicion is the dead girl's babysitter, the Berlin public prosecutor's office told the DPA news agency on Wednesday morning. The "Bild" newspaper had previously reported. The babysitter was a friend of the girl's mother.

On Tuesday afternoon he looked after the four children of a family on a playground in Berlin-Pankow and then allegedly went to the toilet with the five-year-old, according to the public prosecutor. The man then returned to the playground without the girl and said he lost her.

The five-year-old was then reported missing, and the police launched a search operation. Hours later, a passerby discovered the child lifeless in the Pankow Citizens' Park, a few hundred meters from the playground (the star reported). The girl succumbed to her injuries in hospital shortly afterwards. According to the police, the five-year-old had "at least one stab wound".

The suspect was arrested minutes after the girl was found near the park. He is due to appear before the magistrate on Wednesday.

Berlin's governing mayor Franziska Giffey was shocked by the act. "I'm shocked. My thoughts are with the little girl's parents and their families. It breaks my heart and I'm deeply sad," wrote the SPD politician on Twitter.

Sources: Berlin police, Berlin public prosecutor's office, "Bild" newspaper, Franziska Giffey, DPA news agency