This Friday evening, a car drove into the crowd at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany. This Saturday morning, the results show four deaths and 60 to 80 injured, around fifteen seriously.
It was around 7 p.m. this Friday, December 20, when the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, was hit by a car-ramming attack. The assailant, driving a black SUV, crossed the security barriers, zigzagged through the market and rushed into the crowd. It was while trying to turn around that he was stopped by the police.
An unimaginable event
Very quickly, the German authorities spoke of an attack. This Saturday morning, the results show four deaths, including a child, and at least 68 injured, including around fifteen seriously. The witnesses, who came to have a pleasant time, remain shocked and traumatized: “We saw the roof of the car, and then everything happened very quickly. Everyone was on the ground afterwards, children, adults, injured people with open fractures, it was unimaginable.“, a witness told the Welt TV channel.
“It's terrible, there was a dead body right next to me the whole time. I was just thinking of going to the Christmas market, and now something like this happens. The world is sick“, added his companion.
Who is the suspect?
The profile of the main suspect, identified in German media under the name Taleb A., is intriguing. Arrested on board the ram car, he had lived in Germany since 2006, worked as a doctor in the municipality of Bernburg, near Magdeburg, and benefited from refugee status. He was not at all known for his sympathies with the jihadist movement.
On the contrary, his frequent statements on social networks describe a man feeling persecuted, having broken with Islam and denouncing the “dangers” of an Islamization of Germany. Some media even attribute links to the German far right. In any case, he was well known in the community of Saudi emigrants in Germany and provided assistance to asylum seekers, particularly women.
“The motivations remain mysterious, an Islamist background seems excluded“, estimates the weekly Der Spiegel.
A climate of vigilance
The Minister of the Interior, Nancy Faeser, recently called on the population to be vigilant during Christmas markets, without mentioning specific threats. Intelligence services had warned that these markets are a “ideologically appropriate target for people motivated by Islamism“.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz reacted on the social network X (formerly Twitter): “The information coming from Magdeburg suggests the worst. My thoughts are with the victims and their loved ones. We stand with them, as well as with the residents of Magdeburg. I thank the rescue teams for their commitment in these hours of anguish.”
A tragic reminder
This attack comes almost eight years to the day after a similar attack on a Christmas market in Berlin. As the elections approach, Germany remains on alert for the risk of attacks.
christmas market germany magdeburg attack attack
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