At Least 2 Dead, 60 Injured in Germany After Car Plows Into Christmas Market

By Bill Pan

A car drove into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg on Friday, killing at least 2 people and injuring at least 60 others.

The driver of the car has been arrested, reported DPA, Germany’s national news agency. While city and state officials have described the incident as an attack, police have yet to confirm whether it was intentional.

The suspect is a 50-year-old Saudi doctor who moved to Germany in 2006, according to Tamara Zieschang, the interior minister for the state of Saxony-Anhalt. He has been practicing medicine in Bernburg, about 23 miles south of Magdeburg, Zieschang said at a news conference.

Saxony-Anhalt’s governor, Reiner Haseloff, told reporters, “As things stand, he is a lone perpetrator, so that as far as we know there is no further danger to the city.”

Fifteen of the injured were were hurt very seriously, according to government officials and the city government’s website.

Haseloff said that the two people confirmed to have died were an adult and a toddler, and that he couldn’t rule out further deaths.

“But that is speculation now. Every human life that has fallen victim to this attack is a terrible tragedy and one human life too many,” he said.

Magdeburg, located west of Berlin, is the capital of the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt and home to around 240,000 residents.

“This is a terrible event, especially now in the days before Christmas,” Haseloff told MDR, a regional public broadcast service.

German security agencies have been on alert for the possibility of terror attacks on Christmas markets.

“The reports from Magdeburg suggest something terrible is about to happen,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz wrote on X. “My thoughts are with the victims and their families. 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.”

In late November, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said while that there were no indications of a “concrete” threat to Christmas markets this year, it was wise to stay vigilant.

On Dec. 19, 2016, in Berlin, an Islamic terrorist tore his vehicle through a crowd of Christmas market-goers, leaving 13 people dead and dozens more injured. Amri, who had come to Germany as an asylum seeker in 2015 after having spent several years in prison in Italy, managed to flee back to Italy, where he was killed on Dec. 23 in a shootout with local police.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.