Germany: 2 killed, several injured as car rams into crowd at Christmas market, police call it 'terror attack'

At least two people, including a small child, were killed and 68 were injured after a car ploughed into a crowd of people at a Christmas market in eastern Germany. The incident took place on Friday in the German town of Magdeburg. The local authorities are calling it a terror attack as an investigation is currently underway.

According to the city government, out of the 68 people injured in the incident, over 15 were left in a critical state. A black BMW, drove straight into the crowd while travelling at a speed of 400 meters. Multiple videos circulating on social media showed the car ramming several people. However, the authenticity of those videos remains unclear.

According to The Guardian, emergency workers have reached the spot and immediately started treating the accident victims. Makeshift tents have also been erected to provide speedy medical treatment.

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The man behind the wheels

The driver of the car was immediately arrested after the incident. The police identified him as a man named Taleb A. The 50-year-old suspect was a doctor from Saudi Arabia who had been living in Germany since 2006. He is a consultant for psychiatry and psychotherapy and was recognised as a refugee in 2016.

“This is a terrible event, particularly now in the days before Christmas,” said Saxony-Anhalt’s leader Reiner Haseloff, who was on his way to Magdeburg. “As things stand, he is a lone perpetrator, so that as far as we know there is no further danger to the city,” he added.

As per the report, the suspect rented a car shortly before the attack and the suspect was not known to authorities as having an Islamist background. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz took to X, formerly known as Twitter to condemn the attack. “The reports from Magdeburg raise the worst fears,” he wrote in the post. The German Chancellor is also due to travel to Magdeburg on Saturday along with Interior Minister Nancy Faeser.

Condemnation pours in

French President Emmanuel Macron said he was “profoundly shocked” by the attack and “shares the pain of the German people.” Michael Reif, spokesperson for the city, conducted a press briefing shortly after the attack. Reif confirmed that the incident took place at 7:04 pm local time and is being treated as a “terror attack” rather than an accident.

“The images are terrible. According to my knowledge, the car drove into the crowds of visitors … but from what direction and how far it went, I can’t say," he said. Magdeburg’s mayor Regina-Dolores Stieler-Hinz said at least two people were killed in the incident. Hospitals within a 50-mile (80km) radius of Magdeburg are preparing to take patients, while all the region’s emergency helicopters were deployed to the incident.

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Germany is home to an estimated 2,500 to 3,000 Christmas markets which are hosted around the country for about a month. The markets open from the end of November to just after Christmas. These markets have witnessed attacks in the past. In 2016, an Islamist extremist attacker drove a truck into a crowd of Christmas market-goers in Berlin, leaving 13 people dead and dozens more injured. The main perpetrator of the attack was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.

According to a post on the Magdeburg market’s Facebook page, the market was closed for today. “We ask for your understanding,” the post reads.

With inputs from agencies.