A Saudi doctor is suspected of ploughing his BMW through a packed Christmas market in Magdeburg, killing five people including a child and leaving 200 others injured.
The suspect, identified only as Taleb A under German privacy laws, had previously posted social media rants claiming German politicians were attempting to “Islamicise” the country.
The 50-year-old psychiatrist, who moved to Germany in 2006, also wrote about the persecution of former Muslims in Europe. He is reportedly a supporter of Germany’s hard-Right AfD party.
Witnesses described how the car tore through crowds for 400 metres at full speed during Friday evening’s attack.
The suspect was arrested at the scene and remains in custody as investigators probe his links to far-Right groups and examine his social media activity.
The attack marks one of Germany’s deadliest incidents at a Christmas market since an Islamic extremist killed 13 people in Berlin in 2016.
The suspect is a 50-year-old Saudi doctor who moved to Germany in 2006, Tamara Zieschang, the interior minister for the state of Saxony-Anhalt, said at a news conference.
He has been practicing medicine in Bernburg, about 36km south of Magdeburg, she said.
Describing himself as a former Muslim, the suspect shared dozens of tweets and retweets daily focusing on anti-Islam themes, criticizing the religion and congratulating Muslims who left the faith.
He also accused German authorities of failing to do enough to combat what he said was the “Islamism of Europe.”
Verified bystander footage distributed by the German news agency dpa showed the suspect’s arrest at a tram stop in the middle of the road.
A nearby police officer pointing a handgun at the man shouted at him as he lay prone, his head arched up slightly. Other officers swarmed around the suspect and took him into custody.
Thi Linh Chi Nguyen, a 34-year-old manicurist from Vietnam whose salon is located in a mall across from the Christmas market, was on the phone during a break when she heard loud bangs and thought at first they were fireworks.
She then saw a car drive through the market at high speed. People screamed and a child was thrown into the air by the car.
Shaking as she described the horror of what she witnessed, she recalled seeing the car bursting out of the market and turning right onto Ernst-Reuter-Allee street and then coming to a standstill at the tram stop where the suspect was arrested.
The state governor, Reiner Haseloff, told reporters that the death toll rose to five from a previous figure of two and that more than 200 people in total were injured.
Mr Haseloff explained an adult and a toddler had died, and he couldn’t rule out further deaths.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that nearly 40 people “are so seriously injured that we must be very worried about them.”
“There is no more peaceful and cheerful place than a Christmas market,” Scholz said. “What a terrible act it is to injure and kill so many people there with such brutality.”
Lars Frohmüller, a reporter for German public broadcaster MDR, described a “chaotic situation” at the scene.
He told the BBC: “We saw blood on the floor, we saw people sitting beside each other and having golden and silver foils around them. And we saw many doctors trying to keep people warm and help them with their injuries.
“Everywhere were ambulances, there were police, there were a lot of firefighters.”
Magdeburg Mayor Simone Borris, who was on the verge of tears, said officials plan to arrange a memorial at the city’s cathedral on Saturday.
Regional government spokesperson Matthias Schuppe and city spokesperson Michael Reif said they suspected it was a deliberate act.
Mr Reif said there were “numerous injured,” but he didn’t give a precise figure.
“The pictures are terrible,” he said. “My information is that a car drove into the Christmas market visitors, but I can’t yet say from what direction and how far.”
Mourners lit candles and placed flowers outside a church near the market on the cold and gloomy day. Several people stopped and cried. A Berlin church choir whose members witnessed a previous Christmas market attack in 2016 sang Amazing Grace, a hymn about God’s mercy, offering their prayers and solidarity with the victims.
It prompted several other German towns to cancel their weekend Christmas markets as a precaution and out of solidarity with Magdeburg’s loss. Berlin kept its markets open but has increased its police presence at them.
Germany has suffered a string of extremist attacks in recent years, including a knife attack that killed three people and wounded eight at a festival in the western city of Solingen in August.
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.
The incident comes as European Christmas markets face heightened security measures following previous terror attacks. Both France and Germany have bolstered protection at festive markets to safeguard visitors.
German news agency DPA confirmed the driver remains in custody as investigators work to establish the motive behind the attack.
