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Car slams into people at Christmas market in Germany
A car drove into a crowd at a Christmas market in the eastern German town of Magdeburg, broadcaster MDR and other local media said on Friday, citing a local government official. At least one person was killed and several were injured, MDR's report said, citing local police. The report said the suspected driver of the car had been arrested. A video published by newspaper Bild showed people trying to help what appeared to be multiple injured victims at a crowded Christmas market.
A car that drove through a crowded outdoor Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday night killed at least two people and injured 60 more, authorities said.
The two people confirmed dead were an adult and a toddler, but officials said additional deaths couldn't be ruled out because 15 people had been seriously injured.
Who is the suspect?
The suspect is a 50-year-old Saudi doctor who moved to Germany in 2006, Tamara Zieschang, the interior minister for the state of Saxony-Anhalt, said at a news conference. He has been practicing medicine in Bernburg, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Magdeburg, she said.
"As things stand, he is a lone perpetrator, so that as far as we know there is no further danger to the city," Saxony-Anhalt's governor, Reiner Haseloff, told reporters. "Every human life that has fallen victim to this attack is a terrible tragedy and one human life too many."
Suspected attack
"The pictures are terrible," city spokesperson Michael Reif said. "My information is that a car drove into the Christmas market visitors, but I can’t yet say from what direction and how far."
Magdeburg’s University Hospital said it was taking care of 10 to 20 patients but was preparing for more, dpa reported.
Police vans and ambulances stand next to the annual Christmas market in the city center following a possible terror incident on December 20, 2024 in Magdeburg, Germany. (Photo by Craig Stennett/Getty Images)
Magdeburg, west of Berlin, is the state capital of Saxony-Anhalt and has about 240,000 residents.
The suspected attack came eight years after an attack on a Christmas market in Berlin. On Dec. 19, 2016, an Islamic extremist plowed through a crowded Christmas with a truck, killing 13 people and injuring dozens more. The attacker was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said late last month that there were no concrete indications of a danger to Christmas markets this year, but that it was wise to be vigilant.