Germans on Saturday mourned both the victims and their shaky sense of security after a Saudi doctor deliberately drove into a Christmas market, killing at least five people, including a toddler, and injuring at least 200. Injured.
Authorities arrested a 50-year-old man at the scene of the attack in Magdeburg on Friday evening and took him into custody for questioning. He has lived in Germany since 2006, practicing medicine in Bernburg, about 40 kilometers (25 mi) south of Magdeburg. officials said.
The state's governor, Rainer Hesloff, told reporters that the death toll had risen from two to five and that more than 200 people were injured in total.
Chancellor Olaf Schulz said about 40 of them were “so seriously injured that we should be very concerned about them.”
Several German media outlets identified the suspect as Talib A, who withheld his last name to comply with privacy laws, and said he was a specialist in psychology and psychotherapy.
Mourners lit candles and laid flowers outside a church near the market on a cold and gloomy day. Many people stopped and started crying. A Berlin church choir whose members witnessed the attack at the previous Christmas market in 2016 expressed their prayers and solidarity with the victims, singing a hymn about God's mercy, Amazing Grace. was sung
There were still no answers Saturday about what motivated the man to drive his black BMW into a crowd in the eastern German city.
Describing himself as a former Muslim, the suspect He shared dozens of tweets and retweets daily focusing on anti-Islamic themes, criticizing the religion and congratulating Muslims who left the faith.
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He also accused the German authorities of failing to do enough against “the Islamization of Europe”. Some described her as an activist who helped Saudi women flee their homeland. He has also expressed support for the far-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Hesloff said Friday that authorities believe the man acted alone.
The violence shocked Germany and the city, brought its mayor to the brink of tears and marred a festive celebration that is part of a centuries-old German tradition. It prompted several other German cities to cancel their weekend Christmas markets as a precaution and in solidarity with the loss of Magdeburg. Berlin has kept its markets open but has increased the police presence.
Germany has suffered a spate of violent attacks in recent years, including a knife attack at a festival in the western city of Solingen in August that left three people dead and eight injured.
Magdeburg is a city of about 240,000 people west of Berlin, serving as the capital of Saxony-Anhalt. Friday's attack came Eight years After one An Islamic extremist drove a truck into a crowded Christmas market. in Berlin, 13 people died and injured many others. The attacker was killed in a shootout in Italy a few days later.
Chancellor Scholes and Interior Minister Nancy Fesser traveled to Magdeburg on Saturday, and a memorial service is to be held in the city's cathedral in the evening. Feser ordered flags on federal buildings across the country to be flown at half-mast.
Confirmed Bystander footage was distributed. German news agency DPA showed the arrest of the suspect in the middle of the street at a tram stop. A nearby police officer pointed a handgun at the man and shouted at him as he lay hunched over, his head slightly raised. Other officers surrounded the suspect and took him into custody.
Linh Chi Nguyen, a 34-year-old manicurist from Vietnam whose salon is located in a mall near the Christmas market, was on the phone during a break when she heard loud explosions and at first thought they were fireworks. He then saw a car speeding through the market. People screamed and a child was thrown into the air by a car.
Describing the horror of what he saw, he recalled seeing the car bursting through the market and turning right onto Ernst-Reiter-Allee street and then stopping at the tram stop where the suspect was arrested. .
The number of injured was very high.
“My husband and I helped them for two hours. He ran back home and grabbed as many blankets as he could because they didn't have enough to cover the injured. And it was very cold,” she said.
Even on Saturday, the market was cordoned off every 50 meters (yards) with red and white tape and police vans. Police with machine pistols guarded every entrance to the market. Some thermal security blankets are still lying on the street.
Christmas markets A German holiday tradition dating back to the Middle Ages, it is now successfully exported to the Western world.
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