the death toll rises to six, the driver's motivations remain unclear

A sixth person died following the attack perpetrated at the end of December in Germany on the Magdeburg Christmas market, Agence France-Presse (AFP) learned Monday January 6 from a judicial source. A 52-year-old woman died in hospital, the prosecution announced, two weeks after the car-ramming attack committed on December 20 in this city in the center of the country.

The perpetrator of the attack, a 50-year-old Saudi doctor, rushed into the crowd, injuring 299 people, according to the authorities' latest report, before being arrested the same evening by the police. Current investigations “do not yet give a clear picture” of his intentions, declared the Minister of the Interior, Nancy Faeser, at the end of December.

Very active on social networks, Taleb Jawad Al-Abdulmohsen had multiplied worrying signals before the attack. He “does not fit into any known previous pattern” authorities, according to the minister.

Hostile to Islam

This man, who arrived in Germany in 2006, was known for his radically hostile views on Islam, after breaking with his religion, and for being supportive of far-right conspiracy stories about a “Islamization” of Europe.

According to the court, the man could have acted to denounce the lack of support from the German authorities responsible for asylum for Saudi refugees.

The deadly attack placed immigration and security at the heart of the campaign for the early legislative elections on February 23, with the opposition denouncing the lack of firmness of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's center-left coalition.