Second German soldier held over anti-migrant 'assassination plot'

German police on Tuesday detained a second soldier suspected of involvement in a plan by an army officer and a student to carry out an attack, possibly on politicians who do not oppose immigration, the federal public prosecutor said.

The prosecutor's office named the third suspect in the case as Maximilian T., a 27-year-old German national.

He was arrested in April, after police discovered he had registered as a Syrian refugee at a shelter in central Germany in December 2015 and later officially requested political asylum in Bavaria.

Prosecutors believe the three suspects wanted to implicate asylum seekers in their planned attack.

Their alleged targets included former German president Joachim Gauck and justice minister Heiko Maas.

"The accused is strongly suspected of planning a severe act of violence against the state out of a right-wing extremist conviction," prosecutor's office said in a statement.

The first soldier and the student, identified respectively as Franco A. and Mathias F., were detained on 26 April.

The affair has sparked a national debate about right-wing extremism in Germany's armed forces.

Maximilian T. was initially a witness in the case, but became a suspect after police searched several residences in Germany and France on April 26, broadcaster Hessischer Rundfunk reported.

Der Spiegel magazine, citing seized materials that belonged to Franco A., included specific details for possible attacks, including the address of the Justice Ministry and a sketch of a room at the non-profit Amadeu-Antonio Foundation in Berlin.

Investigators also found a list of different weapons and their prices, it said.

On Sunday, inspections were ordered at every army barracks after Nazi-era memorabilia were found at two of them.