A driver has killed at least two after plowing into a crowd at a German Christmas market By Reuters
Written by Andrey Sychev and Tanya Wood
(Reuters) – A driver rammed a car into a crowd of people celebrating at a Christmas market in central Germany on Friday evening, killing at least two people and injuring more than 60 before he was arrested, authorities said.
One of the dead was a small child, said Reiner Haseloff, the state premier of Saxony-Anhalt. The incident took place in Magdeburg, the provincial capital, 150 kilometers (90 miles) west of Berlin.
“It is a tragedy for the city of Magdeburg, for the province and for Germany in general,” Haseloff said, adding that the death toll could rise given the severity of some of the injured.
Haseloff described the attacker as a 50-year-old male doctor from Saudi Arabia and a permanent resident of Germany, where he had lived for nearly two decades.
“As things stand now, we are talking about one criminal, which means that there is no more danger in the city because we were able to catch him.
The reason was not yet clear. The suspect was not known to German authorities as an Islamist, according to local broadcaster MDR.
A Saudi source told Reuters that the kingdom had alerted German authorities about the attacker, who the source said posted extremist views on his X account.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia condemned the attack.
After the incident, the police cleared the area around the car to investigate the explosive, reported local broadcaster MDR. Later it quoted the police who said no such device was found.
The police operation was also underway in the town of Bernburg, south of Magdeburg, where the suspect is believed to have lived, reported the local newspaper Mitteldeutsche Zeitung.
Police were not immediately available to comment on reports of suspicious activity or the operation in Bernburg.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who sent his thoughts to those affected on social media X, is expected to visit the scene on Saturday with Interior Minister Nancy Faeser.
As news of the attack spread, Elon Musk, a billionaire ally of US President-elect Donald Trump, criticized Scholz and called for his resignation.
A video posted on social media from the area above the market shows a car speeding through the crowd and moving between two rows of market stalls. People seem to hit the ground and run away. Reuters was able to confirm the location, with the trees, outline and design of the buildings such as a file and a satellite image of the area.
Footage from a local broadcaster showed people wrapped in blankets receiving help after the attack.
Bild newspaper quoted a witness identified only as Nadine saying that she was walking with her boyfriend, Marco, arm in arm, when a car came running towards them.
“He was beaten and taken out from my side,” Bild quoted him as saying, adding that he was injured in the leg and head and was rushed to the hospital but he does not know where to find him.
“The uncertainty is unbearable,” he told Bild.
Late last month, Faeser advised people to be wary of Christmas markets, which have been the focus of security agencies as they may be attacked by violent people.
Eight years ago, Anis Amri, a failed asylum seeker from Tunisia with links to Islamists, rammed a truck into a busy Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people and injuring scores of others.
