Attack in Germany, cars against Christmas market. Two dead and at least 60 injured

Two confirmed victims and dozens of injured – between 60 and 80 – are the provisional toll from what the authorities have defined as a “terrorist attack” against a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, capital of Saxony-Anhalt, in Germany. However, various media speak of 11 deaths. A man driving a car rushed at full speed into the crowd for about 400 meters and was then arrested: the president of the region reported that he was a 50-year-old doctor of Saudi origin who works in Bernburg and who would have acted alone. According to the Bildwho reported the toll, the police also searched the cordoned off area in search of explosives.

The video of the car

According to police sources, quoted by the local broadcaster Mdra video shows a dark BMW which, at 7.04pm, hurtles at high speed between the stalls. The suspect allegedly rented the car shortly before. There are dozens of injured and, as reported by the Central German newspaperthe city of Halle has increased security measures for its Christmas market.

The wounded treated among the stalls

Several injured people were treated by paramedics in front of the Christmas market stalls, the agency writes Dpa whose reporter on site reported that tents have also been set up where the injured can receive assistance. 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.

Scholz: “The events in Magdeburg suggest the worst”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the events at the Magdeburg Christmas market “foreshadow the worst”. “My thoughts go to the victims and their families. We are at their side and at the side of the people of Magdeburg”, wrote the chancellor on his profile anxiety”.

Meloni: “Deeply shocked”

“I am deeply shocked by the brutal attack that hit the defenseless crowd at the Christmas market in Magdeburg. I am close, with the entire government, to the families of the victims, the injured and all the German people. Violence must have no place in our democracies “said Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.