Five-year-old refugee killed by Afghan national in German camp

The child's mother and a Russian national were also injured in the attack by the 41-year-old assailant after a dispute at the refugee shelter in Arnschwang, near the Czech border.

A six-year-old at the scene was also treated for shock and taken to hospital.

Police said they did not know exact reasons for the attack that took place at the camp where asylum seekers live.

Germany has taken in more than one million asylum seekers since 2015, many from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, sparking an anti-foreigner backlash and a spate of racist hate crimes.

Recently, two German soldiers were arrested for planning a false-flag shooting attack against pro-immigration politicians, which the pair had intended to blame on Muslim migrants and refugees.

The suspect, identified only as Maximilian T., aged 27, was detained from the same Franco-German army base near Strasbourg where his co-conspirator, Franco Albrecht, was also stationed.

He had posed as a fruit-vendor from Damascus to register as a Syrian refugee, despite speaking no Arabic, and was granted a space in a shelter and monthly benefits.

The pair had drawn up a list of pro-refugee politicians to kill, including former German President Joachim Gauck and Justice Minister Heiko Maas.

Albrecht was set to carry out the attack while Maxilimilian T., who served in the same infantry battalion, created the death list and helped procure a French-made handgun from Vienna.

Another man, 24-year-old student Mathias F, was also arrested for planning the murder, which the group had hoped would "be seen by the population as a radical Islamist terrorist act committed by a recognised refugee", prosecutors said.