Suspected terror attack on German Christmas market claims at least two lives

Suspected terror attack on German Christmas market claims at least two lives

At least two people - an adult and a young child - died when a car slammed into a crowd at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, in the northern German state of Saxony-Anhalt, the state's premier said on Friday evening,

Saxony-Anhalt Minister-President Reiner Haseloff added that the suspect, a doctor from Saudi Arabia, had acted alone, and had been arrested.

Tamara Zieschang, the state's interior minister, said the man has been living in Germany since 2006, had a permanent residence permit, and worked in Bernburg, south of Magdeburg.

Scores injured

According to Haseloff, the suspect drove a rental car into a crowd at the Christmas market. Local police said the vehicle "drove at least 400 metres through the market."

An earlier report from the town of around 250,000 inhabitants had mentioned at least one dead and 68 injured, 15 of them severely.

The NTV television channel showed many ambulances and fire engines at the site, injured people being rushed to hospitals, and rescue workers setting up equipment to help the victims.

Many of the injured were taken to the Magdeburg University Hospital for treatment.

Warnings from Interior Ministry, intelligence services

A spokeswoman for the Saxony-Anhalt Interior Ministry told French news agency AFP that the regional authorities believed the incident was, in fact, an attack. Similarly, city spokesman Michael Reif spoke of an "attack on the Christmas market."

"The information coming out of Magdeburg suggests the worst," German Chancellor Olaf Scholz wrote on the X social network. "My thoughts are with the victims and their families. We stand by them and by the people of Magdeburg. I would like to thank the rescue teams involved in these hours of anguish."

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser had recently called on the public to be vigilant at Christmas markets, without mentioning any specific threats. The intelligence services had also warned that Christmas markets were an "ideologically appropriate target for people motivated by Islamism."

In December 2016, a bloody truck attack on a Christmas market in the centre of Berlin killed 12 people. Responsibility for that attack was claimed by the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group.


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