Car driven into crowd at Magdeburg Christmas market

From DW, Bild and Welt. There are many injured, at least one fatality, some newspapers report considerably more deaths. 

A car drove into a crowd of people at a Christmas market in the central German city of Magdeburg on Friday night.

At least one person was killed, according to German media reports.

City spokesperson Michael Reif said there were “numerous injured.”

Police have taken the driver into custody, according to local government sources cited by Germany’s dpa news agency.

Authorities have closed the Christmas market and emergency services are at the scene.

Regional government spokesperson Matthias Schuppe said he suspected the incident was an attack.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz reacted to the incident on X, saying “news from Magdeburg suggests the worst.” He also and expressed his thanks to first responders.

Magdeburg, a city west of Berlin, is the state capital of Saxony-Anhalt and is home to around 240,000 people.

After the attack, a suspect has been arrested. As a police spokesman said on Friday evening in Magdeburg, it is still unclear whether it is a lone perpetrator. The car with which the perpetrator had raced into the crowd “at least 400 meters across the Christmas market” is still on site.

After the attack, numerous paramedics are on duty. They are caring for the injured who are lying on the ground in front of the market stalls. Tents have been set up for this purpose. Blue lights can be seen everywhere. The Christmas market was closed after the crime and tram traffic was suspended.

One woman says that the perpetrator “drove to the fairy tale area of the Magdeburg Christmas market, of all places”. There were a particularly large number of families on the road. She herself was just able to jump to the side with her child.

Welt has information about this man arrested. 

The alleged perpetrator is in police custody. As WELT learned from security circles, it is said to be a man born in 1974 from Saudi Arabia.

According to the report, he had rented a car before the crime, which he then drove to the Christmas market. According to WELT information, a piece of luggage was found on the passenger seat. It is unclear whether there may be an explosive device in it; the authorities have not yet ruled out this scenario. The police are also checking whether the driver acted alone.

Both Bild and Welt are reporting eleven people dead. Which is awful. But the behaviour of huge groups of Muslims at German Christmas markets recently shows how much they regard them as a suitable target for Islamic supremacism and jihad. 

The Telegraph is confident enough about the perpetrator being originally from Saudi Arabia to repeat that information.