Attack on Christmas market, two dead in Germany – News

On the white facade of a building in the large square of Magdeburg, plays of light continue to circle, forming snowflakes. But it is the only thing that remains of Christmas on the night of a tragic attack on the Magdeburg Marketwhere a 50-year-old Saudi mowed down the crowd in a car, killing at least two peoplean adult and a small child, and injuring around seventy.

The man, who arrived in Germany in 2006 and has been working as a doctor for years, was immediately arrested. And in the country that has just cast a vote of no confidence in the chancellor and will vote on February 23, we are already wondering what impact this latest brutal act could have on the German vote. “It is a catastrophe for Magdeburg and for Germany in general”, commented Reiner Haseloff, the president of the Saxony-Anhalt region, who confirmed the arrest of the fifty-year-old, who does not appear in the lists of Islamists considered to be risk. And that he would act as a lone wolf. There are no other dangers for the population, underlined.

The first official toll reports 68 injured, 15 of whom are serious. Another 37 are said to be in medium serious condition and 16 are slightly injured. And it was the city spokesperson Reif who immediately spoke of an “attack”, while the police only say for now that “all leads are open”. “What happened suggests the worst”, commented Chancellor Scholz, who will be on site in a few hours together with Interior Minister Nancy Faeser. “My thoughts go to the victims and their relatives, we stand alongside the towns and citizens of Magdeburg,” he added. The shock is great: on Thursday, December 19th, the Germans remembered the attack of the Berlin Christmas market, at Breitscheidplatzwhere the Tunisian Anis Amir had attacked the crowd with a truck killing 13 people, including the Italian Fabrizia di Lorenzo. Today's massacre was committed aboard a car, however, driven at full throttle against the crowd for over 400 metres. And he managed to hit dozens of people, betrayed during the pre-Christmas ritual of walking among the stands with mulled wine. Images of a video shot by a video surveillance camera are circulating among the crowd of the brutal race, which some German media reported without publishing.

The identity and story of the man arrested by the police is the subject of great astonishment in Germany: how is it possible, one wonders, that a doctor, who has lived in the Federal Republic for over 18 years, employed on a permanent basis, and operating in his profession, could he have become radicalised? Also tormenting politicians and public opinion is the increase in the frequency of violent acts of a terrorist nature: the last attack on a crowd in 2024 dates back to 23 August, when a man armed with a knife attacked the citizens of Solingen, who were celebrating the 650 years of their city with a festival dedicated to diversity, in North Rhine-Westphalia. The toll was three dead and 8 injured. While on May 31st Mannheim, a 25-year-old Afghan had attacked a rally of the far-right Pac Europa movement injuring 6 people and killing an officer. Attacks always occurred a few weeks before important electoral events, the local elections in the east in the first case, and the European ones in the second. This time too we wonder whether the attack on the Magdeburg market will be able to increase the consensus of the populist parties of Alice Weidel and Sahra Wagenknecht. “The images of Magdeburg are frightening. When will this madness end?”, wrote the leading federal candidate of the ultra-right Afd on X.

“My thoughts are with the victims of the brutal and cowardly act that took place today in Magdeburg. My condolences go to their relatives and friends, my thanks to the police and emergency services. This act of violence must be investigated and severely punished .” The president of the EU Commission Ursuia von der Leyen writes it in X.

“Deeply shocked by the terrible attack in Magdeburg. My thoughts go to the victims and their families. The European Union is united in the fight against violence and terrorism.” The vice president of the EU Commission writes it on X Raffaele Fitto.

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