At least two people have died in the incident. Witnesses say that it took place at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, an east German city that is synonymous with today’s modern era of unity and civil rights and one was in fact among its organizers.
In the violence Friday evening (local time), which left 60 people hospitalised, Reiner Haseloff, premier of Saxony-Anhalt, where Magdeburg is situated, told Bild Germany’s top-selling daily newspaper that a small child was also found dead.
According to Prime Minister Haseloff, the driver of the vehicle in question has already been arrested.
How did events happen?
The eastern city of Magdeburg is about 130km southwest of Berlin. People had gathered at their traditional Christmas markets, enjoying a few more days of holiday cheer before going home for the season.
Citing security sources, German outlet Der Spiegel reported a black BMW had “ploughed through” the crowd at high speed shortly after 7 pm Friday local time (5am Saturday AEDT) when the market was teeming with partygoers.
Video posted on social media from across the way from the market shows a car racing through the crowd which walks past two rows of market stalls one after another. People fall down and run away from the scene.
Reuters was able to confirm the location because it fits with trees, outline and building design in photographic and satellite imagery of this neighbourhood. Now that is some rural track:
Police arrested one person after the vehicle had “raced at least 400 metres across the Christmas market.” Bodies lay on the ground in addition to swarms of blood as the vehicle headed towards central city hall square of Magdeburg.
Local television showed ambulances and fire engines with blue lights twirling on the chaotic site. Wailing sirens pierced through the night as wounded people were ferried off many miles away to hospitals and others lay still at earth-level side by side, groans shrilling out from all sides.
Cries and screams were raising as dozens of police, medics, and firemen converged on the litter-strewn market decked out with Christmas trees and festive lights.
What do we know about the suspect?
Haseloff told reporters at the scene that authorities had “caught the perpetrator” and the suspect was a doctor from Saudi Arabia, lived in Germany since 2006.
Haseloff said the man in a rented car with Munich licence plates had ploughed down the market place. “According to the current facts, he was one assailant, so we think he poses no further threat to the city.”
The suspect was a 50-year-old living in Bernburg some 40 km to the south of Magdeburg, said the minister responsible for Saxony-Anhalt’s interior. At Zieschang’s press conference he “was issued a permanent residence permit”.
It has been reported that no extremist group has claimed to be the instigator of the outrages, while the suspect did not come to the attention of the German secret service as an Islamist, according to regional broadcaster MDR.
The Saudi Foreign Ministry has condemned the attack. What is the reaction of world leaders?
“Horrific news from the Magdeburg Christmas market in Germany,” wrote Anthony Albanese on social media platform X Saturday morning.
“My thoughts, and those of all Australians, are with the victims and their families.” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had written on X shortly after the incident that “the messages from Magdeburg are abominable”.
“In this difficult and tragic hour my heart is with the victims and their families. We stand with them and with the residents of Magdeburg. I thank the dedicated rescue personnel, who are still working at this hour in what I know are highly anxious circumstances.”
“The brave people of Magdeburg can count on our support. The thoughts of the people of Berlin and the whole of Germany are with them in these anxious hours, just as those of Prime Minister Guiseppe Conte,” the Italian leader wrote.
As for the AfD, Elon Musk said at Friday’s press conference when asked by Scholz replied, “That’s neither the pneumatic tube nor the plumbing system of a multibillionaire, and it’s also not the money multibillionaire who pins send-ups about people whose complexions resemble fried eggs onto front pages for a living.
Politicians who disagree with Scholz
Regarding the search at 170 sq m apartment in Scholz’s parents’ home, authorities are “in the process of finding all further data and also carrying out an interrogation”, he said.
Buff says Scholz will inspect the scene Saturday.This topic is one that he and Scholz will discuss, Haseloff said he and their parties would carry out a “Promised that nothing like this will happen again”
“We now need to look back at four years of the coalition and have a really thorough discussion about what needs to improve,” Haseloff said.
Also traffic has been halted in Magdeburg. The city-wide police operation will meanwhile continue unabated in order to track down the suspect, who is now believed to be hiding in this area. The newspaper said that he may have lived in the town’s southwest corner, near a railway line.
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