Pictured: Pregnant Polish woman, 45, hacked to death with a machete by Syrian refugee 'who was in love with her' in German street attack

The pregnant Polish woman who was hacked to death with a meat cleaver by a Syrian refugee in the German town of Reutlingen was a mother-of-four who came to the country after her divorce.

Identified only as Jolanta K., 45, she was killed on Sunday by the 21-year-old, who reportedly fell in love with her after visiting the kebab shop where she worked.

Jolanta came from the north-eastern Polish town of Dabrowa Tarnowska and had lived in Germany for a year, according to the Polish press. She left her hometown after a divorce. 

She worked as a cleaner and shared a flat with a new friend. Three months before the fatal attack, she found a full-time job in a kitchen at the Mangal Kebab fast food store.

Jolanta left her four children aged eight, 19, 22 and 23 in Poland.

The youngest daughter was supposed to join her mother to live in Germany soon. On the day she was killed, Jolanta had just arrived back from a visit to her homeland.

According to local media, Jolanta almost managed to escape the attack.

The attacker, identified only by his first name Muhamed, knew Jolanta from Mangal Kebab and fell in love with her, according to local media.

Jolanta is said to have rejected him, and the other restaurant employees used to force him to leave the place and locked him out because he was 'weird'.

Her children have arrived in Reutlingen to identify their mother's body.

Rafal Sobczak, a spokesman of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said: 'We are in touch with the family of the murdered woman. As the Foreign Ministry, we offer them all the possible help that we can.'

During the incident in the city, south of Stuttgart, the attacker also injured a man and another woman before being arrested by police after he was run over by a man driving a BMW.

A witness to the incident, Robert Lukowski, 25, described the situation as a nightmare.

He said: 'I saw the woman lying in blood. And then when I saw the crazy man in the handcuffs, I was terrified.'

Pictures from the scene appeared to show the knifeman lying on the ground with blood on his face after being apprehended.

Armed police officers were seen pinning him down to the ground before binding his hands behind his back.

Meanwhile, footage filmed by passers-by also showed the bearded attacker in the moments following the rampage running around in the street while people scream 'Oh my God'.

He also banged on the windows of a Citroen car in which a 51-year-old woman suffered cuts to her arms and a 41-year-old man went into shock.

The attacker also injured a 23-year-old man by slashing his face.

It is believed a man passing the incident in a BMW car ran over the man, knocking him to the ground, before he was detained by police.

German media reported that the killing took place outside a restaurant where the woman worked as a cleaner. The driver, who was named as Alper K, 21, is thought to be the son of the restaurant owner.

Paramedics attempted to save the woman's life after she sustained head injuries but she died and her body was covered with a white sheet.

One eyewitness told German newspaperBild: 'The perpetrator was completely out of his mind. He ran with his machete even behind a patrol car.' 

Police spokesman Bjoern Reusch said in a statement that witnesses said the 21-year-old man, who was known to police, was having an argument with the woman, who is believed to have been working at the kebab stand, before attacking her about 4:30 pm.

They also added that the incident 'did not bear the hallmarks of a terrorist attack'.

'According to the information available, the perpetrator acted alone, the people of Reutlingen and its surroundings are very probably not in danger,' the statement added.

The asylum-seeking Syrian man had been involved in previous incidents causing injuries to other people, police said.

The spokesman had no immediate information on when the man arrived in Germany, or when the previous incidents took place.

He was injured in the collision with the BMW and is currently in hospital, where he has not yet been questioned but is under guard by police.

The attack comes as Germany is on edge, following a rampage at a Munich mall on Friday night in which nine people were killed, and an axe attack on a train a week ago that left five wounded.

Some Germans are also fearful of any signs of a rise in crime or lawlessness after the country registered some one million asylum-seekers last year.