MAGDEBURG, Dec 20 – A car plowed into a crowd at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, central Germany, on Friday evening, killing two people, including a child, and injuring more than 60, officials said. The driver, a 50-year-old Saudi doctor with permanent residency in Germany, was arrested at the scene.
Reiner Haseloff, premier of Saxony-Anhalt, described the incident as a catastrophe and warned that the number of casualties could rise due to the severity of injuries.
Police identified the suspect as Taleb Abdul Jawad, a psychiatrist who had lived in Germany for nearly 20 years. Saudi officials told Reuters they had previously alerted German authorities about his extremist views shared on social media. Der Spiegel reported that the suspect had shown support for Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany party.
A video shared online showed the car speeding through the market, knocking down pedestrians and scattering shoppers. Witnesses described chaotic scenes, with emergency services treating injured people on the ground.
Authorities cordoned off the area to investigate a possible explosive device in the vehicle but later confirmed no explosives were found. Police also searched the suspect’s residence in Bernburg, south of Magdeburg.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser are expected to visit the site on Saturday. Security concerns at Christmas markets remain high, following warnings last month and memories of the 2016 Berlin truck attack.
