As of: December 21, 2024 1:37 p.m
Magdeburg is in shock after the attack on the Christmas market, which has so far left five dead and more than 200 injured. Chancellor Scholz spoke of a terrible event at the crime scene. “Nothing will remain unexamined.”
During his visit to Magdeburg, Chancellor Olaf Scholz described the attack on the Christmas market as a “terrible, insane act” and announced that it would be carefully investigated. There is no more peaceful and cheerful place than a Christmas market, said Scholz at the scene. “What a terrible act it is to injure and kill so many people there with such brutality.”
After the attack, the number of deaths has now risen to five. “We have to mourn five human lives and more than 200 injuries, many of them seriously and seriously injured,” said Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff, who accompanied Scholz. According to the Chancellor, “an incredible number, almost 40” are so seriously injured “that we have to be very concerned about them.” The act goes deeply to the heart and we have to stand together.
Scholz promised a precise investigation of the crime. “Nothing can be left unexamined – and that's how it will be.” You have to understand the perpetrator, his actions and motives carefully and react to them with the criminal consequences. CDU leader Friedrich Merz, Justice Minister Volker Wissing and Environment Minister Steffi Lemke were also there.
Service planned in the cathedral
According to Haseloff, the state government met for a cabinet meeting and Scholz also took part. It was about how the victims and relatives could be supported. Haseloff once again thanked the aid workers and spoke of a “dimension that none of us could even imagine.” A memorial and funeral service is planned in the cathedral in the evening.
The results are even more terrible than initially assumed in the evening, said Haseloff. The site of the attack will “forever remain connected to the history of the city of Magdeburg,” said Haseloff, visibly shaken. The site will find its way into the city's history as a memorial site.
Police: “We take everything into account”
On Friday evening, a man drove his car into the Christmas market in the state capital of Saxony-Anhalt. “We don’t yet know the background to the crime, we are taking everything into account,” said a police spokeswoman when asked. According to the police, the investigating authorities are currently assuming that the attacker was a lone perpetrator.
The suspect is a doctor who lives and works in Bernburg, said Prime Minister Haseloff. According to current information, he is not known to the authorities as an Islamist. According to Haseloff, the perpetrator drove a rental car into the crowd at the Christmas market.
Suspect known online
According to research by WDR and NDR He is said to be a very prominent figure in the Saudi exile community and was considered a contact person for asylum seekers, especially women. He has had asylum status as a political refugee since 2016.
Statements that the man is said to have made on social media until recently provide evidence that he may have felt persecuted and that he feared the Islamization of Germany.
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