Police detained the 27-year-old as he arrived back at Berlin’s central bus station on a bus from southern France, where he had apparently been hiding.

Ten days ago police released footage from late October showing the man walking up behind a woman at Hermannstraße U-Bahn station in southern Berlin and kicking her in the back.

The woman tumbled down the stairs, falling face first onto the platform below. She broke her arm in the fall and had to be treated in hospital.

On the video can also be seen how the young man and three associates walk casually away from the scene. Two of the men are reportedly his brothers.

Prosecutors are now weighing up whether to charge the man with attempted manslaughter or a lesser charge of serious bodily harm.

According to prosecution spokesman Thomas Fels, the suspect has already made a statement, but he would not give any information on the details.

The suspect, Svetoslav S. has three children back home in Bulgaria where he already had a criminal record for robbery and theft, reports the Süddeutsche Zeitung. In Berlin he worked in a restaurant and on a building site.

The case has unleashed a debate over security on the capital’s public transport, with the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) calling for more CCTV to be installed.

But police figures show that violent crime in Berlin’s stations and on its public transport network has fallen in recent years.