A suspect identified as a Saudi exile working as a psychotherapist close to the city of Magdeburg, drove his car into revellers, killing two people, including a child
Investigations are ongoing after a car ploughed into a busy outdoor Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg on Friday, killing at least two people and injuring at least 60 others.
The driver was arrested at the scene shortly after the car barrelled into the market at around 7 p.m., when it was teeming with holiday shoppers looking forward to the weekend. The two fatal victims were an adult and a toddler, but officials said the death toll could climb after 15 people were seriously injured.
The violence shocked the city, bringing its mayor to the verge of tears and marring a festive event that’s part of a centuries-old German tradition. It also prompted several other German towns to cancel their weekend Christmas markets as a precaution and out of solidarity with Magdeburg’s loss.
Here’s what we know so far…
Saudi doctor named as suspect
The 50-year-old suspect, who the MailOnline identified as psychologist Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, was a respected figure in the Saudi exile community and had worked closely with asylum seekers. German media outlets WDR and NDR said the man, who they named only as Taleb A, had focused especially on helping foreign women adapt to their new life in the federal republic.
“As things stand, he is a lone perpetrator, so that as far as we know there is no further danger to the city,” Saxony-Anhalt’s governor, Reiner Haseloff, told reporters. “Every human life that has fallen victim to this attack is a terrible tragedy and one human life too many.”
Footage shows moment of arrest
Several videos have been shared on social media in the wake of the attack. In one, a black vehicle can be seen tearing a devastating path through a huge crowd of people. Another piece of bystander footage, distributed by Germany’s news agency dpa, showed the moment cops apprehended the the suspect on a walkway in the middle of the road. A nearby police officer pointing a handgun at the man shouted at him as he lay prone. Other officers soon arrived to take the man into custody.
Attacker targeted German cultural institution
The violence occurred in Magdeburg, a city of about 240,000 people west of Berlin that serves as Saxony-Anhalt’s capital. Friday’s attack came eight years after an Islamic extremist drove a truck into crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing 13 people and injuring many others. The attacker was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.
Christmas markets are a huge part of German culture as an annual holiday tradition cherished since the Middle Ages and successfully exported to much of the Western world. In Berlin alone, more than 100 markets opened late last month and brought the smells of mulled wine, roasted almonds and bratwurst to the capital. Other markets abound across the country.
How has Germany responded?
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said late last month that there were no concrete indications of a danger to Christmas markets this year, but that it was wise to be vigilant. Hours after Friday’s tragedy, the wail of sirens clashed with the market’s festive ornaments, stars and leafy garlands.
Chancellor OIaf Scholz posted on X: “My thoughts are with the victims and their relatives. We stand beside them and beside the people of Magdeburg.”
