A car plowed into a crowd of people shopping at a busy Christmas market in eastern Germany Friday — killing at least two, including a small child, in what officials are saying was a terrorist attack by a Saudi doctor.
Horrifying video showed the driver ripping through the narrow pathways between the outdoor shopping village stalls shortly after 7 p.m. local time in the city of Magdeburg, where hundreds of people were gathered.
The driver was immediately arrested. APThe driver was immediately arrested after carrying out what authorities are calling a terror attack, German news agency dpa reported.
The suspect is a 50-year-old Saudi doctor who first came to Germany in 2006, Saxony-Anhalt’s interior minister, Tamara Zieschang said.
He had been practicing medicine in Bernburg, about 23 miles south of Magdeburg.
“As things stand, he is a lone perpetrator, so that as far as we know there is no further danger to the city,” Saxony-Anhalt’s governor, Reiner Haseloff, also told reporters.
The suspect — who has not yet been identified — was not previously on law enforcement’s radar as a known Islamist, security sources told dpa.
Officials confirmed that two people were killed: one adult and one small child. Investigators expect the casualties to continue to climb.
Emergency services attend to an injured person at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany. dpa/picture alliance via Getty ImagesSixty-eight others were injured in the mayhem, including 15 who were hurt very seriously. Another 37 people had injuries of medium severity and 16 were lightly injured.
Authorities are investigating the incident as a suspected targeted attack, according to regional government spokesperson Matthias Schuppe and city spokesperson Michael Reif.
“This is a terrible event, particularly now in the days before Christmas,” Haseloff said, adding that flags will be lowered to half-staff in Saxony-Anhalt and in federal buildings across the country in mourning.
Magdeburg Mayor Simone Borris also announced plans for a memorial at the city’s cathedral on Saturday.
Chancellor OIaf Scholz posted on X: “My thoughts are with the victims and their relatives. We stand beside them and beside the people of Magdeburg.”
Reverberations following the attack quickly spread across the globe — ABC News reported that the NYPD would be adding more cops to the city’s holiday markets in the wake of the violence.
Emergency services, police, and firefighters are on duty at the Christmas market on December 20, 2024, in Magdeburg, Germany. dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images
Police vans and ambulances stand next to the annual Christmas market in the city center following a possible terror incident on December 20, 2024, in Magdeburg, Germany. Getty Images
In this screen grab image from video, special police forces attend an incident at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday Dec. 20, 2024. APThe incident mirrors a similar attack that happened Dec. 19, 2016, in Berlin, in which an Islamic extremist drove a truck through a crowd of Christmas market-goers with a truck, leaving 13 dead and dozens of others injured.
Last month, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said there were no concrete indications of a danger to Christmas markets this year, but warned Germans to remain vigilant.
Magdeburg lies west of Berlin in the state capital of Saxony-Anhalt.
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