At least two people are dead and as many as 68 injured after a car rammed into a crowded Christmas market in the city of Magdeburg, the capital of the central German state of Saxony-Anhalt.Officials on Friday night described the incident as an intentional attack and announced the driver has been taken into custody at the scene. An investigation is underway.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was among the many offering their condolences in the immediate aftermath.
“The reports from Magdeburg suggest something terrible has happened. My thoughts are with the victims and their families,” Scholz wrote on the social media platform X.
“We stand by their side and by the side of the people of Magdeburg. My thanks go to the dedicated rescue workers in these anxious hours.”
The interior minister for Saxony-Anhalt, Tamara Zieschang, identified the suspect as a 50-year-old doctor from Saudi Arabia who arrived in Germany in 2006. He was previously unknown to security services.
Another state official, Premier Reiner Haseloff, told a local news outlets that one of the dead was a child and the other an adult. He added he could not say whether there would be further deaths as a result of the suspected attack. Advertisement
“That is speculation now. Every human life that has fallen victim to this attack is a terrible tragedy and one human life too many,” Haseloff told reporters.
He …
