Dead and injured

Car drove into crowd at Christmas market

(Bild: picturedesk.com/Dörthe Hein / dpa / picturedesk.com)

A few days before Christmas, there was apparently a terrorist attack in Magdeburg: A car driver plowed into a group of people on Friday evening. The alleged perpetrator, who was born in 1974, is said to be a doctor from Saudi Arabia. 

The attack - almost eight years to the day after the attack on the Christmas market at Berlin's Memorial Church - claimed the lives of an adult and a small child. According to the police, more than 60 people were injured, including several seriously. Haseloff said that further fatalities could not be ruled out. The terrible incident is said to have occurred at 7:04 pm. The driver, who had been driving a dark BMW, raced "at least 400 meters across the Christmas market" in the German city of Magdeburg, a police spokesman said. The suspected perpetrator was arrested immediately after the crime.

Suspect worked in a clinic 
Several media named the man as Taleb A. and reported that he was a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy. According to research by Der Spiegel, he was initially an activist for refugees in Germany, but may have drifted away in the meantime. Most recently, the man, who was recognized as a refugee in 2016, openly sympathized with the AfD on his X account - and in a video interview published eight days ago on an Islamophobic US blog, he spread crude theories about a "covert secret operation" by the German state to "hunt down Saudi ex-Muslims worldwide and destroy their lives", while at the same time Syrian jihadists were granted asylum.

This video is said to show the arrest of the driver: 

 "Bild" reported 60 to 80 injured, citing the emergency services. After initially reporting eleven fatalities on Friday evening, Saxony-Anhalt's Minister President Reiner Erich Haseloff later confirmed only two deaths for the time being. One of them is said to be a small child. 

Expert suspects error in the security system
As reported by MDR, an explosive device was suspected in the perpetrator's vehicle - the police therefore cordoned off the surrounding area. Terrorism expert Hans-Jakob Schindler told ZDF television that he was horrified that such an attack was even possible in this day and age. "First of all, the surprise is that a vehicle of any size can still drive into a German Christmas market in a major city," he explained on "heute journal". This points to flaws in the security concept.

After the attack, a large contingent of emergency services was on site.

(Bild: picturedesk.com/Dörthe Hein / dpa / picturedesk.com)

(Bild: picturedesk.com/Dörthe Hein / dpa / picturedesk.com)

Spital: "We are currently upgrading"
After the attack, numerous paramedics swarmed around the event site and tended to injured people lying on the ground in front of the market stalls. Tents were set up to provide medical care for people inside. Hospitals in the surrounding area were preparing to receive many patients: "We are currently setting up," the spokesperson for Magdeburg University Hospital told Bild. "Intensive care beds are ready."

This article shows the large contingent of rescue workers following the terrorist attack in Magdeburg:

Visitors should leave Magdeburg city center
The police reported on the news platform X that the Christmas market had been closed - "extensive operational measures" were underway. The organizer of the market also called on people to leave the city centre. The Christmas market in Erfurt, around two hours away from Magdeburg, was evacuated on Friday evening as a precautionary measure.

Suspect arrested
The driver is said to have driven the vehicle directly into a crowd of people in front of the town hall. People panicked and tried to flee the scene. The police searched the area for explosives after the crime, reported the newspaper "Bild".

Saxony-Anhalt's Minister President Reiner Haseloff expressed his horror at the attack: "This is a terrible event, especially in the days leading up to Christmas," said the CDU politician. He wanted to see the situation in Magdeburg for himself and traveled to the scene that evening.

Chancellor: "Reports suggest the worst"
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on X: "The reports from Magdeburg give a foreboding of bad things to come. My thoughts are with the victims and their families. We are at their side and at the side of the people of Magdeburg. My thanks go to the dedicated rescue workers in these anxious hours."

Only the day before, the victims of the Christmas market attack on Berlin's Breitscheidplatz had been commemorated in Berlin. It was the eighth anniversary of the tragedy. In 2016, an Islamist carried out an attack and killed twelve people. Another victim succumbed to his injuries a little later.