Death toll rises to five with more than 200 injured in German Christmas market attack

By Catherine Nicholls, Frederik Pleitgen, Nadine Schmidt, Benjamin Brown and Lauren Kent, CNN

Berlin (CNN) — At least five people – including a child – were killed and more than 200 injured after a car plowed into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg on Friday, local authorities said.

“It is unimaginable that this is happening in Germany,” Reiner Haseloff, the prime minister of Saxony-Anhalt state, of which Magdenburg is the capital, said during a visit to the scene with other officials on Saturday, confirming the latest toll.

Haseloff said on Friday that the suspect – who was arrested – was a 50-year-old man from Saudi Arabia who has lived in Germany since 2006 and worked as a doctor in a nearby town.

Authorities have not released any information about a possible motive behind the attack but a since deleted X feed linked to the suspect showed he had in the past shared anti-Islam statements and accused Germany of promoting the Islamization of the country.

The German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser on Saturday described the man as “an Islamophobe.” She gave few other details and said that the investigation was just starting.

A nine-year-old child and four adults were killed in the attack, the city’s deputy mayor Ronni Krug said. Local public broadcaster MDR previously reported the child victim was a toddler, citing Haseloff.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who was among the group of politicians that laid flowers at a church near the market on Saturday, said he was “very worried” for the nearly 40 people who were critically injured in the attack.

“There is no more peaceful, more joyous place in Germany than Christmas markets when people come together ahead of the Christmas festival and spend some time together, drink mulled wine, have a sausage together to relax together,” Scholz told reporters in Magdeburg.

He stressed that Germany must remain united after the fatal attack, and vowed that the perpetrator would not go unpunished, adding that investigators would, “try to understand what the motive was of the attacker in order to respond with the full strength of the law.”

The suspect is yet to be formally identified, but German media have named him as Taleb A., following the convention in Germany of withholding the full name of suspects in criminal cases. He is thought to have acted alone, according to German authorities.

The suspect had permanent residency in the country, according to Tamara Zieschang, the interior minister of Saxony-Anhalt state, and worked as a doctor in Bernburg, a small town about 25 miles south of Magdeburg.

He had rented the car used in the alleged attack, MDR reported, citing Haseloff.

Footage from social media, verified by CNN, shows the gruesome moment a black car drove directly into the crowd at the busy Christmas market.

In the video, dozens of people can be seen crowded at the market stalls when the vehicle plows directly into them. Some people can be seen running away in panic, while others dive into the stalls. Bodies and debris are scattered across the narrow lane as the car turns out of the plaza.

The area around the car was previously cordoned off over suspicion that an explosive device could be inside it, but police later found no such device, local public broadcaster MDR reported, citing Magdeburg police.

Footage geolocated from social media showed law enforcement officials arresting an individual about 500 feet (150 meters) from where the vehicle plowed into the crowd.

The video published by the AP news agency pans across a busy road to show a police officer aiming a handgun at the arrestee near a vehicle, which appears to be heavily damaged. Moments later two police vans arrive, and officers swarm the scene.

A separate video also from AP, captured from across the street, shows officers handcuffing an individual lying prone beside the black SUV seconds later.

CNN affiliate NTV reported on the same video, saying it captured the moment the suspect was arrested. CNN has not been able to confirm if this is the suspect in Friday’s market attack.

The number of injured people exceeded what hospitals in Magdeburg could handle, with some being flown to a hospital in the nearby city of Halle for treatment, MDR reported. Those with minor injuries were treated at a nearby shopping center and on a tram converted into a care center.

About 100 firefighters and 50 rescue personnel have been deployed, the city of Magdeburg said.

Magdeburg, the state capital of Saxony-Anhalt, has a population of about 240,000.

The Christmas market was scheduled to be open from November 22 through December 29, according to its website. It has about 140 market stalls, as well as an ice skating rink, a ferris wheel and a children’s play area.

Haseloff said mourning would take place in Germany, especially in the state. “We will fly the flags at half-mast to express what a tragedy has taken place here and that we all share in the suffering that has been inflicted on people,” he said.

City authorities announced there would be a memorial service at Magdeburg Cathedral at 7 p.m. (1 p.m. ET) Saturday. Crowds have already gathered outside the church, as dozens of people lay down bouquets and candles to honor the victims.

The deadly attack has raised questions over how the suspect was able to gain access to the event via car and ram his vehicle into the festive crowds.

The deadly car-ramming has brought back memories of a terror attack in 2016, when a tractor trailer barreled into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing 13 people and injuring dozens. Security measures at markets across Germany were significantly tightened in its wake.

Speaking to reporters in Madgeburg on Saturday, Scholz urged Germans to support one another and remember Germany “is one society” that will win through a “shared future.”

“For me it’s important that when such a terrible, awful event happens, a terrible attack in which so many people were injured and killed, almost on the anniversary of the Breitscheidplatz terror attack in Berlin, that we as a country stay together and stick together,” he said.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry condemned the attack after it emerged that the suspect was a Saudi national.

“The Kingdom affirms its position in rejecting violence and expresses its sympathy and sincere condolences to the families of the deceased and to the Federal Republic of Germany, government and people, with its wishes for a speedy recovery for the injured,” it said in a statement.

The White House was closely monitoring the situation and US officials were in touch with their German counterparts that were investigating the situation to offer support, a National Security Council official told CNN.

European leaders, including President of the European Council António Costa, French President Emmanuel Macron and Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof also sent their condolences.

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that an additional victim died later from their injuries after a Christmas market attack in Berlin in 2016, bringing the toll to 13.

CNN’s Avery Schmitz, Billy Stockwell, Inke Kappeler and Melissa Gray contributed to this report.

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