Suspected murderer admits to killing two boys

The 4-year old Mohamed was already dead on October 2, only a day after his kidnapping, officials said Friday.

"The man confessed overnight that he had also killed Elias," a missing 6-year old from the German town of Potsdam, said Berlin police spokesman Stefan Redlich.

Mohamed was separated from his mother and siblings while waiting at a busy Berlin registration center, triggering a large-scale search.

During the search, police published images from surveillance systems, showing a man leading away a child who was holding a plush toy.

Police arrested the alleged killer at his family's house in the northeastern state of Brandenburg on Thursday, after his mother alerted the authorities.

Taken from family home

The officials found the body of a young child in the suspect's car, and it is likely to be identified as the 4-year Bosnian boy, prosecutors said.

The other alleged victim, Elias, went missing in July while playing near his parents home in Potsdam, outside Berlin.

The suspected killer told the police he had buried the German boy in a garden allotment.

The police found a body at the indicated location, according to a report by the AFP news agency.

The authorities have refrained from speculating about the motive, although they stated Thursday that there was no evidence that the suspect had any xenophobic feelings or links to far-right groups.

According to local media, the authorities are also investigating the suspect's involvement in a disappearance of another child, a five-year-old girl named Inga.

dj/kms (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters, FENA)