German authorities announced today that they had thwarted a planned attack on a reception center for asylum seekers and arrested the 21-year-old suspected attacker.

The suspect's home was searched on Wednesday after "an anonymous tip that he had acquired explosives with the aim of carrying out an attack on an asylum seeker accommodation centre in eastern Germany in the near future," police said in a statement.

It is added that high-powered pyrotechnic devices, knives, ammunition and firearms were seized.

The suspect, originally from the eastern region of Saxony, is due to appear before an investigating judge later in the day.

The target of his planned attack was the migrant center in Senftenberg, south of Berlin, according to the Dresden prosecutor's office in charge of the case.

The fight against illegal immigration is one of the parties' priorities ahead of the parliamentary elections on February 23 in Germany.