A car crashed into a crowd of people at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany. The city is located about two hours' drive west of Berlin.
The first official toll reported by the mayor was one dead and 68 injured. But the situation is evolving: over the course of the hours there was talk of 11 deaths. In the evening, the president of the Saxony-Anhalt region Reiner Haseloff said that at least two people died in the attack, an adult and a small child.
The police arrested the driver of the car, a dark BMW, which crashed into a Christmas market: he is a 50-year-old born in Saudi Arabia, who apparently acted as a “lone wolf”. The man traveled about 400 meters mowing down the crowd with his car, which he apparently rented shortly before.
The arrested person is a doctor and works in Bernburg.
According to the Farnesina, at the moment there are no Italians involved in the attack on the Magdeburg Christmas market but checks continue.
Wounded treated among the stalls
Several people injured by the car that hit a Christmas market in Magdeburg are being treated by paramedics in front of market stalls. This was written by the Dpa agency, whose reporter on site reported that tents have also been set up where the injured can receive treatment. The market was closed and tram services in the city were also suspended.
Emergency vehicles flooded the market area, the German agency writes, recalling that almost eight years ago, on 19 December 2016, an Islamist terrorist deliberately crashed a truck into a Christmas market in the center of Berlin, causing the death of 13 people and the wounding of over 70. The attacker then managed to escape to Italy, where he was shot dead by the police.
