What we know about the car attack on the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany

A car hit people present at a Christmas market on Friday, December 20, in the German city of Magdeburg (Saxony-Anhalt), leaving two people dead – a child and an adult – and 68 injured, the town hall reported. city. Local authorities have mentioned a “attack” but specify that they cannot yet “categorize what happened.” The motivations of the suspect, a 50-year-old doctor from Saudi Arabia, who was arrested, are not yet known.

What happened at the Magdeburg Christmas market?

It was around 7 p.m. when the car drove into the crowd “for at least 400 meters through the Christmas market”, explained a spokesperson for the Magdeburg police. The assailant was driving a black SUV which rammed security barriers, then zigzagged around the market grounds, according to visitor accounts on the local news site. People's voice. While trying to turn around, he was stopped by police officers, according to the same source.

“We think it was an attack”a spokesperson for the Ministry of the Interior of the Land of Saxony-Anhalt told AFP. But “in the current state of the investigation it is not yet possible to categorize what happened”said the local police.

Nadine, 32, was in the market with her boyfriend Marco, 39, when the car hit him. “He was dragged and taken away from me, it was terrible”she told the newspaper Bild. “No one shouted, we didn’t hear the car”she explained. She said her companion had been injured in the leg and head and that she did not know to which hospital he had been taken, describing a “unbearable uncertainty”.

“We saw the roof of the car and then it happened. Everyone was then lying on the ground, children, men, injured people with open fractures, it’s unimaginable”another witness told the television channel Welt TV. “It’s terrible, there was a dead body next to me all this time. I thought I was just going to the Christmas market and such a thing happens. The world is sick »added his companion.

Images of visitors to the market, broadcast by local media, show people trying to help those lying on the ground between stalls adorned with Christmas decorations. The lights of the party were quickly drowned out by the flashing lights and lights of emergency and police vehicles in an incessant coming and going to evacuate the injured. Large white tents were set up, welcoming the victims not far from the sheds planned to sell mulled wine and gingerbread for the last weekend of Advent.

Who is the suspect?

The alleged perpetrator is a 50-year-old doctor from Saudi Arabia who arrived in Germany in 2006 and has refugee status. He practiced in the Saxony-Anhalt region, of which Magdeburg, 160 kilometers west of Berlin, is the regional capital. This man, presented in the media as Taleb A., “acted alone”according to the head of government of the region, Reiner Haseloff. He was taken into custody.

According to Mr. Haseloff, this is in no way a coincidence but a “time synchronization” wanted for reasons “politics”. The attack occurs in the middle of the electoral campaign in Germany, placed on alert against the risk of attacks. Christmas markets are a “ideologically appropriate target for people motivated by Islamism”German intelligence services had warned before the holiday season. The attack also comes eight years almost to the day after that which occurred in Berlin against a Christmas market: claimed by the Islamic State group, the attack left thirteen dead and more than 60 injured.

The suspect's motivations, however, remain unclear because he was not known to the police as an Islamist and, according to German media, he had even published opinions on social networks denouncing the dangers of Islamization.

Germany promises to shed “all light on the context”

The mayor of Magdeburg, Simone Borris, burst into tears in front of the press: “I could never have imagined that the city would be affected by such an event”.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz plans to visit the site on Saturday. The Minister of the Interior, Nancy Faeser, assured that the security services would “shedding all the light on the context” of this attack. The German head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, spoke of an attack in a press release. “The joy of a peaceful Christmas to come has been abruptly cut short”he reacted.

Friedrich Merz, candidate for chancellor for the conservatives in the legislative elections of February 23, 2025, also reacted on the social network X: “My thoughts are with the victims and their loved ones. I thank all the intervention forces who take care of the injured on site. »

The far right reacted quickly, in Germany and abroad, where the debate is lively on security and the reception of immigrants. “When will this madness end? »wrote on X the co-president of the AfD, Alice Weidel, whose party is credited with second place in the legislative elections.

France “shares the pain of the German people”: international reactions

Saudi Arabia has ” sentenced “, early Saturday, this attack, asserting its “rejection of violence”. The Gulf kingdom expressed “his solidarity with the German people and the families of the victims”in a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs broadcast on X.

“France shares the pain of the German people and expresses its solidarity”said French President Emmanuel Macron, also on “deeply shocked”. “The French are reliving the terror of the terrorist attacks that affected us. Our solidarity is total, this mourning is ours and our will to fight is absolute”added the Prime Minister, François Bayrou, on the same social network.

Still on X, Italian nationalist and conservative leader Giorgia Meloni also said she was “ shocked » par “the brutal attack on the defenseless crowd at the Magdeburg Christmas market”. “Violence has no place in our democracies”a-t–she added. The head of the Spanish government, Pedro Sanchez, said “shocked” by the “terrible attack” in Germany

Several attacks or planned attacks with Islamist motivation, and involving foreign nationals, have shaken the country in recent months. At the end of August, a knife attack committed by a Syrian and claimed by ISIS left three dead and several injured during a party in Solingen, in the west of the country.