A vehicle crashed into a crowd on Friday evening at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, leaving two people dead and 68 injured, including 15 seriously injured. The suspect, a 50-year-old Saudi doctor working in the Saxony-Anhalt region, was arrested, reports AFP.
At the wheel of a black SUV, the assailant crossed the security barriers and traveled around 400 meters zigzagging around the market before being arrested by the police, according to testimonies collected by the site local Volksstimme. According to the head of the regional government Reiner Haseloff, the alleged perpetrator “acted alone”.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier called the event an attack, while Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the events “portended the worst.” This attack comes in a context of increased vigilance by German security services, who had previously warned of the risk of seeing Christmas markets targeted by terrorist attacks.
The incident is reminiscent of the truck-ramming attack perpetrated in December 2016 on the Berlin Christmas market, claimed by the Islamic State, which left 12 dead and more than 60 injured. Since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, Germany, like many countries, has increased its vigilance in the face of terrorist threats and the rise of anti-Semitism.
