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The man driving the car that drove into the crowd, killing at least 2 people and injuring 70 on Friday, was identified as a 50-year-old Saudi who arrived in Germany in 2006. He believed he was persecuted by the German state , whom he accused of wanting to “Islamize Europe”.
On Friday evening, a man drove his car into a crowd at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, the capital of the state of Saxony-Anhalt, in eastern Germany. According to a first report communicated by the authorities in the evening, two people were killed (an adult and a young child) and more than sixty injured. Images from surveillance cameras, widely distributed on social networks, show a black vehicle rushing at full speed among the stands of the Christmas market.
While the exact motive for the act was not yet clear, several German politicians spoke of a “attack” or a “alleged attack”an expression taken up by numerous media across the Rhine. In France, right-wing and far-right politicians, such as Jordan Bardella, have denounced a “Islamist attack”. The Minister President of Saxony-Anhalt, Reiner Haseloff, was more reserved in an initial reaction, evoking “a terrible event, especially in the run-up to Christmas”.
A doctor specializing in psychiatry and psychotherapy
The author has
France
