Police say a 23-year-old German man is being investigated for letting two attack dogs loose on a Syrian man in a park in the eastern town of Magdeburg.

The suspect is alleged to have racially abused the 29-year-old Syrian, who was in the park with his family on Sunday afternoon. When the victim tried to protect his family, the assailant put him in a headlock while the dogs attacked the Syrian.

In a statement Monday, police said they have identified the suspect and seized his dogs. The victim is being treated in hospital for bite wounds.

Racist attacks in Germany have increased since the arrival in 2015 of hundreds of thousands of refugees, many of them fleeing conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.