Attack on the German Christmas market in Magdeburg: two dead, dozens injured

Officials said two people were killed, including a child, and dozens were injured after a car plowed into a crowd at a Christmas market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg.

In a statement, authorities said 68 people were injured, 15 seriously.

Reiner Haseloff, Prime Minister of the state of Saxony-Anhalt, told reporters at the scene that the arrested suspect was a 50-year-old Saudi citizen who came to Germany in 2006 and worked as a doctor.

He said a preliminary investigation showed the suspected attack was a lone attacker and that he could not rule out further deaths due to the number of people injured.

The alleged attacker’s motive is unclear and he has no known ties to Islamist extremism – social media and online posts appear to indicate he has been critical of Islam.

Footage from the scene shows numerous emergency vehicles attending while people lay on the ground.

Further footage then emerged of armed police officers confronting and arresting a man who could be seen lying on the ground next to a stationary vehicle.

Unconfirmed video on social media appears to show a car driving into the crowd at the market.

City officials said about 100 police officers, paramedics and firefighters, as well as 50 emergency responders, rushed to the scene.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz said: “My thoughts are with the victims and their families. We stand at your side and at the side of all Magdeburgers. My thanks go to all the emergency services during these difficult hours.”

Scholz will visit the city on Saturday, Haseloff said, and there will be a memorial service for the two victims in Magdeburg Cathedral.

At around 7:20 p.m. local time (18:20 GMT), the organizers of the Christmas market announced that it was closed with a request for “understanding”.

A short time later, they asked the public to avoid the market. “Please let the emergency services do their job and leave the market in an orderly manner,” they wrote on social media.

In an interview with German newspaper Bild, Nadine described how she was at the Christmas market with her boyfriend Marco when the car sped towards them.

“He was hit and ripped away from my side,” the 32-year-old told the newspaper. “It was terrible.”

Meanwhile, Lars Frohmüller, a reporter for German public broadcaster MDR, told BBC Radio 4’s World Tonight that he saw “blood on the floor” as well as “a lot of doctors trying to keep people warm and help them with their injuries.” “.

When the incident occurred, the Magdeburg football team was playing against Fortuna Düsseldorf.

After the game ended, the team’s players lined up in front of their fans. The association’s “thoughts are with those affected by the terrible events and the Magdeburg Christmas market,” it said in a statement.

Meanwhile, a minute’s silence was held at the end of a game between Bayern and RB Leipzig in Munich.

Friday’s incident is not the first attack on people at a Christmas market in Germany.

In 2016, Anis Amri, a Tunisian who was denied asylum in Germany and had ties to the so-called Islamic State (IS) group, was drove a truck into the crowd that had gathered at a church market in BerlinTwelve people were killed and 49 others were injured.

Two years later, a gunman opened fire at a Christmas market in the eastern French city of Strasbourg, killing five and wounding another 11 people. The gunman was shot dead by police two days later.

French President Emmanuel Macron said after the incident in Magdeburg that his country “shares the pain of the German people and expresses its full solidarity.”

Just last month, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser spoke of the need for “greater vigilance” in the popular markets – but said there were no “concrete” signs of danger.

She pointed to stricter gun laws in public spaces after a knife attack in Solingen, western Germany, in August that left three people dead – an incident that reignited an already heated debate over asylum and migration in Germany.