By Thomas Escritt and Rachel More
MAGDEBURG, Germany (Reuters) – Five people were killed in a car attack on a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg and more than 200 were injured, officials said, and a Saudi man suspected of driving it was arrested. A car drove into the crowd.
Friday evening's attack on market visitors gathered to celebrate the Christmas season comes amid heated debate over security and immigration during the election campaign in Germany, where the far right is polling strongly.
“It is a terrible act to injure and kill so many people in such a brutal way,” said Chancellor Olaf Scholz in the center of the former East German town, where he laid a white flower at a church in honor of the victims. .
“Now we have learned that more than 200 people have been injured,” he added. Nearly 40 were seriously injured and we should be very concerned about them.
German authorities are investigating a 50-year-old Saudi doctor who has lived in Germany for nearly two decades in connection with the car. The police raided his home overnight.
The motive is still unclear and police have not released the suspect's name. He has been referred to in the German media as Taleb A.
A Saudi source told Reuters that Saudi Arabia had warned German authorities about the attacker after he posted extreme comments on his X account that threatened peace and security.
Der Spiegel reported that the suspect has sympathized with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. The magazine did not say where it got this information.
Germany's domestic intelligence agency declined to comment on the ongoing investigation.
German newspaper FAZ said it interviewed the suspect in 2019, describing him as an anti-Islamic activist.
“People like me, who have a Muslim background but are not believers, do not understand or tolerate anything about Muslims here,” he was quoted as saying. “I am the biggest critic of Islam in history. If you don't believe me, ask the Arabs.”
Andrea Reis, who was at the market on Friday, returned on Saturday with her daughter Julia to put a candle in the church facing the site. He said that if it hadn't been for a second, they would have been in the driveway.
“I said let's go get the sausage, but my daughter said 'no let's keep walking.'
Tears streamed down his face as he explained the incident. “The children are crying, they are crying for the mother. You can't forget that,” he said.
Scholz's Social Democrats trail both the far-right AfD and the leading opposition in opinion polls ahead of snap elections set for February 23.
The AfD, which enjoys very strong support in the former East, has led to a reduction in immigration to the country.
Chancellor candidate Alice Weidel and co-leader Tino Chrupalla issued a statement Saturday condemning the attack.
“The horrific attack on the Christmas market in Magdeburg in the middle of a peaceful pre-Christmas period has shaken us,” they said.
A top Social Democrat lawmaker in the Bundestag cautioned against jumping to conclusions and said it appeared the attacker had no Islamist motive.
“Now we have to wait for the investigation. It seems that things are different here than originally thought,” Dirk Wiese told the Rheinische Post newspaper.