Markus Söder said it was a terrible day and called for a pause: “We mourn the loss of a small, innocent child.”
Police said they were investigating a motive for the attack, and the background to the attack remains unclear. The suspect was reportedly staying at a home for asylum seekers.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who was on a visit to France, condemned the “unbelievable terrorist act”. He wrote on social media that he was sick of seeing “such acts of violence every few weeks” and called on the authorities to find out why the suspect was still in Germany.
The German government has come under increasing pressure to take a tougher stance on immigration after a series of deadly attacks, and with a federal election set for February 23, the anti-immigration far-right AfD is in second place in the polls.
Five people were killed in December when a man drove his car into a crowd at a Christmas market in Magdeburg. A Saudi doctor has been charged with the attack.
In August, three people were fatally stabbed in Solingen. The suspect was a Syrian national facing deportation after a failed asylum claim.
This attack led to the German government expansion of border control and tighter knife controls, and sparked an intense debate over asylum rules that has continued ahead of next month’s election.
The conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) is now leading the polls, while Olaf Scholz’s center-left Social Democratic Party (SDP) is in third place.
The election was called after Scholz’s three-party coalition collapsed in November.
