German authorities have arrested five men suspected of being militant Islamists planning an attack on a Christmas market in southern Bavaria, police and prosecutors said in a joint statement.

There has been a series of vehicle ramming attacks in Germany since an Islamist rammed a hijacked truck into a Christmas market in central Berlin in 2016.

Last December, several people were killed in an attack on Magdeburg.

Three Moroccan nationals aged 22, 28 and 30, an Egyptian national aged 56 and a 37-year-old Syrian were detained on Friday at the Suben border crossing between Germany and Austria, according to the joint statement late on Saturday.

Investigators believed that the men intended to drive a vehicle into a crowded market in the Dingolfing-Landau area with the aim of killing or injuring as many people as possible, the statement said, adding that authorities suspected an Islamist motive.