Story highlights Investigators believe Albakr was planning an attack on Berlin airport

Two Syrians tied Albakr to a sofa and alerted police to his whereabouts

Berlin (CNN) A Syrian refugee suspected of planning a bomb attack "with Islamist motives" on a Berlin airport has strangled himself to death with his shirt in detention, Saxony state justice officials said Thursday.

Investigators believe that 22-year-old Albakr, who arrived in Germany last year, was close to staging a terrorist attack. German police have said that Albakr's "approach and behavior" suggest an ISIS link.

Albakr was arrested overnight Sunday after a manhunt that went for almost two days.

"On the evening of October the 12th, 2016, Jaber Albakr, the prime suspect in planning a serious attack against the state, took his life in the prison hospital of the Leipzig correctional facility," the ministry said in a statement on its website, also confirming the news to CNN.

The Saxony Justice Minister Sebastian Gemkow told reporters that Albakr had strangled himself with his shirt but it was not immediately clear if he had hanged himself in his cell.

Gemkow said Albakr had been seen by a psychologist earlier in the day, but it was assessed that suicide was unlikely.

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