(Image: Anadolu via Getty Images)
Death toll rises to five after attack on German Christmas market
by Liv Clarke · Manchester Evening NewsAt least five people have been killed in an attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany and more than 200 people were injured.
On Friday evening a Saudi doctor drove a BMW into a busy Christmas market in the city of Megdeburg in eastern Germany. Authorities identified the suspect as a 50-year-old who has been living in Germany for nearly two decades and practising medicine there.
He was arrested on Friday evening at the site of the attack as medical officials tended to the injured, and was taken into custody for questioning. Several German media outlets identified the man as Taleb A, withholding his last name in line with privacy laws, and reported that he was a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy, according to PA.
There were still no answers on Saturday as to what caused him to drive into a crowd in the eastern German city of Magdeburg. Describing himself as a former Muslim, he shared dozens of tweets and retweets daily focusing on anti-Islam themes, criticising the religion and congratulating Muslims who left the faith.
(Image: Anadolu via Getty Images)
The violence shocked the country and the city, bringing its mayor to the verge of tears and marring a festive event that is part of a centuries-old German tradition. It prompted several other German towns to cancel their weekend Christmas markets as a precaution and out of solidarity with Magdeburg’s loss.
On Saturday German Chancellor Olaf Scholz arrived in Magdeburg. He laid flowers at a memorial set up in St John’s Church near where the attack happened. A memorial service is due to take place this evening.
Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Reiner Haseloff, state premier of Saxony-Anhalt, said that five people had been killed in the attack, the BBC reports.
Magdeburg is a city of about 240,000 people, west of Berlin, that serves as Saxony-Anhalt’s capital. Friday’s attack came eight years after an Islamic extremist drove a truck into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing 13 people and injuring many others. The attacker was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.
On Saturday Scholz told reporters that authorities were investigating the perpetrator “in depth”. He added: "We should not allow those who wish to sow hate to do so.”