An attack by a Saudi citizen at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg has caused at least two deaths and 60 injuries, many of them seriously. The authorities suspect that it is a terrorist attack. The deceased are an adult and a child.
The driver, , is a doctor born 50 years ago in Saudi Arabia and resident in Germany since 2006, reported the president of the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt, Reiner Haseloff. According to police, the individual was not identified as a radicalized person and is believed to have acted alone. He worked as a doctor in Bernburg, a town 30 minutes south of Magdeburg.
A spokesman for the government of the state of Saxony-Anhalt has declared that “this is probably an attack.” The Magdeburg police suspect that explosive material may be found in the car, according to the public broadcaster Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR).
The agents have closed and cordoned off the Christmas market, in the center of this eastern German city, and have launched a “wide deployment” of security forces in the area. At the same time, emergency services are treating the numerous injured, of whom at least 15 are seriously injured, according to Agence France-Presse.
“The information coming from Magdeburg allows us to predict the worst,” lamented the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, in a message on the X network. “My thoughts are with the victims and their families.” Scholz and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser will travel to Magdeburg on Saturday. “This is a horrible event, especially in the days leading up to Christmas,” Haseloff told MDR.
According to eyewitnesses cited by the local newspaper Magdeburger VolkszeitungAt around 7:04 p.m. local time, the car rammed into the market, swerving for 400 meters to run over as many people as possible, until the police stopped it. “The images are horrible,” said Magdeburg city spokesman Michael Reif.
The attack comes at a delicate moment for Germany, on the eve of an electoral campaign where security and immigration issues will be the subject of debate. And they leave a feeling of repetition, of scenes already seen, and questions about the effectiveness of security measures, which had been reinforced in the thousands of Christmas markets that are set up around this time in German towns and cities.
The images of Magdeburg have brought to light the worst memories, another massive attack in a busy Christmas market that left 13 dead. On December 19, 2016, the Islamist terrorist Anis Amri rammed a truck into people who were at the flea market on the popular Breitscheidplatz square, next to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, near the Berlin Zoo.
In the attack, 13 people died and more than 60 were injured. The 13th victim succumbed to his serious injuries in October 2021. The victims came from Germany, Poland, Israel, Italy, Ukraine and the Czech Republic. The terrorist managed to escape at first, which led to a strong police operation. Four days later, on December 23, 2016, Amri was killed in Milan in a shootout with police.
The police also evacuated the Erfurt city market this Friday, although it is unknown if any threat had been registered.
Christmas markets are a deep-rooted and popular tradition in Germany, where they attract millions of visitors every year. Due to their popularity and their connection to a Christian tradition, “they are an ideologically suitable target for people with Islamist motivations,” according to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the domestic intelligence services. German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser called for market surveillance in November, but noted that there were no concrete signs of a threat.
Different European cities have suffered in the last decade. In 2016, during the celebrations of July 14, the French national holiday. The self-proclaimed Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack.
On the night of June 3, 2017, . After the accident, the three occupants continued driving to the nearby Borough gastronomic market, got out of the vehicle and stabbed several people. The police shot them down. The attack left eight dead, including a Spaniard, and more than 40 injured.
A few months later, tragedy shook Spain. and the Cambrils seafront on August 17 and 18, 2017. The attacks left 16 dead and 180 injured.
