• 1997 Tour winner could be charged with attempted murder • Arrest follows incident in Mallorca on neighbour’s property

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Jan Ullrich, the 1997 Tour de France winner, was arrested early on Friday for allegedly attacking an escort at a Frankfurt hotel.

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A police spokesperson said the retired German cyclist was arrested after police were called to the hotel, where Ullrich was said to be under the influence of drugs and alcohol. He could be charged with “assault or attempted murder”.

Carina Lerch added: “It seems Mr Ullrich and an escort woman had a dispute and that he attacked her. She alerted the hotel staff and they called police. Mr Ullrich is still in custody.”

A police statement said the woman needed medical treatment. Lerch said no further details could be given on her condition while police were investigating.

The German news agency DPA reported that Ullrich, 44, had been arrested the week before in Mallorca, where he lives, following an incident on the property of his neighbour, the actor Til Schweiger.

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On Monday, Ullrich had told the German tabloid Bild of personal problems: “The separation from [wife] Sara and distance from my children, whom I have not seen since Easter and have barely spoken to, have had a great effect on me. I have done things as a result that I very much regret.”

Ullrich, the only German to win the Tour, was dogged by doping allegations throughout his career and admitted to the German magazine Focus in 2013 that he received blood-doping treatment from the Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, adding: “Almost everyone took performance-enhancing substances then. I took nothing that the others didn’t also take.

Ullrich served a two-year ban for doping in 2012, five years after he retired in 2007.