A 52-year-old woman has died in hospital two weeks after she was injured when an SUV rammed a crowd at a packed Christmas market in the German town of Magdeburg on December 20
The death toll of the Magdeburg Christmas market attack has risen to six with news that a female victim of the shocking incident has now died weeks later.
The woman, 52, was initially among the approximately 299 people the interior ministry of the Saxony-Anhalt said were injured in the shock smash on December 20, with hundreds of people impacted by the incident overall. She died a few days ago after being taken to hospital with her injuries, with a friend telling the German tabloid Bild it appeared she had been recovering well beforehand.
The friend added her condition took a turn for the worse following surgery complications. She becomes the sixth person killed in the shocking pre-Christmas attack, in which more than 200 people were hit by a car in just three minutes after it ploughed into the crowd.
Four other women aged 45 to 75 were killed, as was nine-year-old André Gleißner. Police have named Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, 50, as the driver behind the wheel of the SUV, adding that up to 531 people were victims of the attack due to trauma sustained by witnessing the incident.
Germany’s interior ministry has disclosed little about the driver, saying on December 30 that it was too soon to jump to any conclusions about Abdulmohsen, a Saudi Arabian doctor with permanent German residency who arrived in the country in 2006. The ministry has revealed, however, that al-Abdulmohsen was Islamaphobic and critical of Germany’s past welcoming of Muslim immigrants.
He once shockingly called for former German Chancellor Angela Merkel to be jailed for life or executed. Social media accounts had previously falsely suggested al-Abdulmohsen was an Islamic terrorist, with the ministry having quickly pushed back at early reports, stating he did not “fit into any previous categorisation”.
Interior minister Nancy Faeser said following the attack last year: “The perpetrator does not fit into any previous categorisation. Every stone will be turned over here.” Witnesses of the horror said the attack sparked a “panic” and that people at the venue were the first to administer first aid despite the extremely traumatic nature of the smash.
Speaking to the BBC, Gianni Warzecha said he was with his girlfriend when the car suddenly ploughed into the crowd, adding he heard a “rumbling” as the vehicle hit. He told the BBC: “Suddenly there was a rumbling and the sound of shattered glass. People began to panic. I was next to where it happened.
“For me it was just the sound first. It took a few minutes for first paramedics to arrive, but it wasn’t enough because there were already 200 people hurt. Most of the first aid was done by people there.”
