A deadly knife attack on a kindergarten group in Germany, where an Afghan man was arrested at the scene, reignited a bitter immigration debate Thursday, a month before elections.

Germany was stunned by what was the latest in a series of bloody attacks, in which a man wielding a kitchen knife on Wednesday attacked young children in a park in the Bavarian city of Aschaffenburg.

He killed a two-year-old Moroccan boy and a 41-year-old German man who had tried to protect the children and wounded three others, among them a Syrian girl also aged two who sustained neck wounds.

Following the attack, the conservative frontrunner in the February 23 polls, Friedrich Merz, vowed a "fundamental" overhaul of asylum rules and permanent border controls from day one, if elected to power.

His ally, Bavarian state premier Markus Soeder, called the attack on the toddlers "the most despicable and horrific crime you can imagine" and praised the heroism of a passer-by who died trying to protect the children.

The under-fire government of centre-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz denied blame but agreed that the current EU rules on........

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