A Syrian migrant suspected of planning a bomb attack on a Berlin airport has committed suicide in a detention centre in Leipzig, the Justice Ministry for the state of Saxony said on Wednesday.

Investigators believe Jaber al-Bakr , 22, who arrived in Germany last year, was close to staging an attack comparable to those that killed 130 people in Paris last November and 32 in Belgium in March.

"On the evening of October 12, 2016, Jaber Albakr, who was suspected of planning a serious attack, took his life in the detention centre at Leipzig correctional hospital," the ministry said in a statement on its website.

The ministry said it would give more details at a news conference in Dresden on Thursday at 0900 GMT.