A 19-year-old man tried to drown his 17-year-old ex-girlfriend in the Havel river, in Berlin, but almost died and had to be revived by paramedics, a police spokesman told DPA on Wednesday.
"He could not swim and almost killed himself," a police representative said.
According to preliminary reports, the man is a refugee from Afghanistan, while his ex-girlfriend is a German national. The alleged perpetrator, who has been taken to hospital for treatment, is now being investigated for attempted murder.
The incident took place on Tuesday when the man had reportedly pushed his former fiancee into the river, then jumped after her and tried to drown her. However, he swallowed a lot of water and loosened his grip, enabling the 17-year-old to liberate herself and make it to the shore.
According to investigators, the two were formerly a couple, and the crime may have been the result of a breakup.
The young man is said to have arrived in Berlin in 2015. Whether he lives in one of the city's refugee shelters remains unclear.
Germany has been struggling to manage a massive refugee crisis, which escalated in 2015 with hundreds of thousands of migrants seeking asylum in EU member states.
Amid security concerns raised by the heavy inflow of refugees, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been severely criticized for her "open-door policy."
In 2017, the number of asylum applications has significantly decreased compared to previous years.
According to the Ministry of Interior, around 187,000 people applied for asylum in Germany in the first 10 months of 2017. In the same period last year, there were about 694,000 such applications.
