A minimum of two individuals are lifeless and as many as 68 injured after a automobile rammed right into a crowded Christmas market within the metropolis of Magdeburg, the capital of the central German state of Saxony-Anhalt.
Officers on Friday night time described the incident as an intentional assault and introduced that the driving force had been taken into custody on the scene. An investigation is beneath means.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was among the many many providing their condolences within the rapid aftermath of the incident. His workplace indicated that he can be visiting the scene on Saturday.
“The stories from Magdeburg recommend one thing horrible has occurred. My ideas are with the victims and their households,” Scholz wrote on the social media platform X.
“We stand by their facet and by the facet of the folks of Magdeburg. My thanks go to the devoted rescue staff in these anxious hours.”
The inside minister for Saxony-Anhalt, Tamara Zieschang, recognized the suspect as a 50-year-old physician from Saudi Arabia who arrived in Germany in 2006. He was beforehand unknown to safety providers.
One other state official, Premier Reiner Haseloff, advised a neighborhood information retailers that one of many lifeless was a toddler and the opposite an grownup. He added that he couldn’t say whether or not there can be additional deaths because of the suspected assault.
“That’s hypothesis now. Each human life that has fallen sufferer to this assault is a horrible tragedy and one human life too many,” Haseloff advised reporters.
He mentioned that officers at the moment imagine the suspect in custody was the only perpetrator behind the automobile ramming.
“As issues stand, he’s a lone perpetrator, in order that so far as we all know, there isn’t a additional hazard to the town,” Haseloff advised reporters.
Among the many injured, 15 have been recognized as being in crucial situation, in line with the town authorities’s web site. One other 37 folks had accidents of medium severity and 16 have been calmly injured.
Native media stories point out the automobile concerned was seen driving at excessive speeds earlier than hanging the group at about 7pm native time (18:00 GMT).
Christmas markets are a convention courting again to the Center Ages in German-speaking components of Europe. In Magdeburg, a metropolis of about 240,000 residents, the market was arrange in a city sq., with stalls promoting regional food and drinks.
“It’s a horrible tragedy. It is a disaster for the town of Magdeburg and for the state, and for German usually as nicely,” Haseloff mentioned. “It’s actually one of many worst issues one can think about, significantly in reference to what a Christmas market ought to deliver.”
Al Jazeera correspondent Dominic Kane, who was headed to the scene of Friday’s suspected assault, mentioned the Christmas market would have been particularly crowded when the automobile struck.
“ It’s the final Friday earlier than Christmas. It’s the custom throughout Germany that Christmas markets are locations that individuals go to, particularly on Friday night time,” Kane mentioned.
“After which take into consideration the bodily geography of the market involved, the place it’s. It’s not that removed from the city… not that removed from the river Elbe, in fairly a picturesque metropolis really. So there can have been plenty of causes for folks to be within the centre of the town on the time.”
Kane added that the suspect’s reported use of a rental automobile would supply investigators an avenue to study extra about his actions within the lead-up to the assault.
“Clearly, there shall be a document of when the automobile was picked up, the place it was picked up and what documentation was used to get the automobile within the first place. These are all strains of inquiry,” Kane mentioned.
Friday night time’s suspected assault comes eight years after an analogous automobile ramming within the German capital of Berlin on December 19, 2016.
In that case, a Tunisian suspect, 24-year-old Anis Amri, deliberately drove a truck right into a Christmas market in a serious public sq., Breitscheidplatz.
Twelve folks have been killed in that assault and as many as 56 have been wounded. Amri was finally killed in a shootout in Milan, after fleeing to Italy.
Raphael Bossong, a senior affiliate on the German Institute for Worldwide and Safety Affairs, speculated that the 2 incidents will doubtless be seen as associated, although it’s too early to invest.
“ Sadly, this can be a very unhappy anniversary, and I’m certain the perpetrator selected this factor for that objective, to deliver up this reminiscence,” Bossong advised Al Jazeera shortly after the information broke.
He added that Friday’s suspected assault is poised to have political repercussions in Germany, which is slated to carry federal elections in February 2025.
“We’re getting into an election interval, and the German debate is already very polarised round these problems with migration,” Bossong defined. “I’m certain this can solely add gas to the fireplace, as unhappy as it’s.”
Particularly, safety preparations – each on the market and within the nation as a complete – are prone to come beneath scrutiny.
“All Christmas markets and all these amenities normally now are purported to be cordoned off in opposition to visitors, within the sense that since no automobile and no lorry may drive into them,” Bossong advised Al Jazeera. “Most likely the authorities must do some explaining.”
Already, the billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk – an more and more distinguished determine on the far proper – has used the assault to name for Chancellor Scholz’s resignation.
“Scholz ought to resign instantly,” he wrote in a touch upon his social media platform X. “Incompetent idiot.”
Earlier within the day, Musk had introduced he would back the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) celebration in Germany’s upcoming elections.
“Solely the AfD can save Germany,” he posted, signalling his assist.
One other far-right determine, MP Nigel Farage within the UK, additionally chimed in on social media. “Now we have allowed individuals who hate us and our values into Europe. Christmas is their goal. Any guesses why?”
