A car plowed into a busy outdoor Christmas market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg on Friday, December 20, killing at least two people and injuring at least 68 others in what authorities suspect was an attack.
The unnamed suspect was a 50-year-old medical doctor from Saudi Arabia living in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, said regional premier Reiner Haseloff, speaking at the scene, which was cordoned off and guarded by police commandos.
“We have arrested the perpetrator, a man from Saudi Arabia, a doctor who has been in Germany since 2006,” he told reporters, calling the attack a “catastrophe” for the city and the country.
“From what we currently know he was a lone attacker so we don’t think there is any further danger.”
Fifteen of the injured were hurt very seriously, according to government officials and the city government’s website. It said 37 people had injuries of medium severity and 16 were lightly injured. Haseloff said the two people who were confirmed to have died were an adult and a small child, but that he couldn’t rule out further deaths because so many people were seriously injured.
“But that is speculation now. Every human life that has fallen victim to this attack is a terrible tragedy and one human life too many,” he said.
Magdeburg’s University Hospital said it was taking care of 10 to 20 patients but was preparing for more, dpa reported.
‘A catastrophe’
The sounds of sirens from first responders clashed with the market’s holiday decorations, including ornaments, stars and leafy garland festooning the vendors’ booths.
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The car drove into the market at around 7 pm, when it was busy with holiday shoppers looking forward to the weekend.
“It’s a terrible tragedy – this is a catastrophe for the city of Magdeburg and for the state, and for German generally as well,” Haseloff said. “It is really one of the worst things one can imagine, particularly in connection with what a Christmas market should bring.”
Chancellor OIaf Scholz posted on X: “My thoughts are with the victims and their relatives. We stand beside them and beside the people of Magdeburg.”
Magdeburg, which is west of Berlin, is the state capital of Saxony-Anhalt and has about 240,000 residents.
The suspected attack came eight years after an attack on a Christmas market in Berlin. On December 19, 2016, an Islamic extremist plowed through a crowded Christmas with a truck, killing 13 people and injuring dozens more. The attacker was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.
Christmas markets are a huge part of German culture as an annual holiday tradition cherished since the Middle Ages and successfully exported to much of the Western world. In Berlin alone, more than 100 markets opened late last month and brought the smells of mulled wine, roasted almonds and bratwurst to the capital. Other markets abound across the country.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said late last month that there were no concrete indications of a danger to Christmas markets this year, but that it was wise to be vigilant.
After news broke of the tragedy, Saudi Arabia expressed “solidarity” with Germany after one of its nationals was arrested.
The government expressed “solidarity with the German people and the families of the victims,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on social media platform X, and “affirmed its rejection of violence.”
