A Syrian man arrested on suspicion of plotting a jihadist bomb attack on a Berlin airport was found dead in his cell Wednesday after an apparent suicide, AFP reported.
Jaber Albakr, who was arrested two days earlier following a nationwide manhunt after police found explosives in his apartment, was discovered hanged in his jail cell in the eastern city of Leipzig, reported Germany's Bild daily and national news agency DPA.
"Jaber Albakr took his own life in the Leipzig prison hospital," the government of the eastern, ex-communist state of Saxony said in a statement, without elaborating.
Albakr, 22,had narrowly evaded police commandos at dawn last Saturday but was arrested some 48 hours later, thanks to three compatriots now widely lauded as heroes, who said that after recognizing him, they tied him up and handed him to police.
Politicians and the suspect's defense lawyer reacted with outrage over the death in custody which followed what was widely seen as a botched police search that ended only thanks to the three other Syrian asylum seekers.
Germany's domestic security service had first alerted police last Friday that Albakr may be plotting a bomb attack, and police investigators have since said he was thought to have had links with the Islamic State (ISIS) group.
Early last Saturday, police closed in on his communist-era flat in the eastern city of Chemnitz, but he managed to slip away after they fired a warning shot, sparking a weekend-long nationwide manhunt and high alerts at railway stations and airports.
Police then discovered 1.5 kilograms (over three pounds) of TATP, the homemade explosive dubbed the "mother of Satan" that was used by ISIS jihadists in the Paris and Brussels attacks, in his flat.
Investigators said the explosives were "almost ready or even ready for use," and that he was apparently preparing a "bomb, possibly in the form of a suicide vest".
Public broadcaster MDR said Wednesday that Albakr, who first arrived in Germany in early 2015, had since then twice returned to Syria via Turkey.
Germany's domestic intelligence chief Hans-Georg Maassen said his service had received information that Albakr "initially wanted to target trains in Germany before finally deciding on one of Berlin's airports".
The service reportedly believes the attack may have been only days away.
On the run over the weekend, Albakr had contacted the Syrians, who put him up in their apartment in Leipzig but then realized he was a wanted terror suspect and turned him in to police, having kept him in a headlock and tied up with an electric cable.
Albakr had offered them money to let him go, but they refused, they later told media, which did not identify them for fear of ISIS reprisals against the men.
Germany has been on alert since a series of attacks this past summer, including two in the southern state of Bavaria that were both claimed by the Islamic State (ISIS).
In the first attack, a 17-year-old Afghani with an ax attacked passengers on a train in Wurzburg before being shot dead by security forces.
In the second incident, an attacker set off a bomb in a restaurant in Ansbach, killing himself and wounding 12 others.
In August, German authorities arrested a manon suspicion of storing materials that could be used as explosives. The suspect also had items in his apartment glorifying ISIS.
In late September, police arrested a 16-year-old Syrian refugee in Cologne on suspicion he was planning a bombing in the name of ISIS.
A week earlier, they detained three men with forged Syrian passports who were believed to be a possible ISIS "sleeper cell" with links to those behind the November Paris attacks.
AFP contributed to this report.