Two dead and 60 injured after driver plows into crowd at Christmas market in Germany

A driver plowed his car into a group of people at a busy outdoor Christmas market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg on Friday, killing at least two people and injuring at least 60 others in what Authorities suspect it was an attack.

The driver was arrested shortly after the car entered the market around 7pm, when it was packed with Christmas shoppers looking forward to the weekend. The suspect is a 50-year-old Saudi doctor who first came to Germany in 2006, Tamara Zieschang, interior minister of the state of Saxony-Anhalt, said at a news conference.

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

Fifteen of those injured were seriously injured, according to government officials and the city government website.

Haseloff said the two people confirmed dead were an adult and a young child, but he could not rule out more deaths.

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

The alleged attack in Magdeburg, a city of about 240,000 people west of Berlin, the capital of Saxony-Anhalt, came eight years after an Islamic extremist drove a truck into a busy Berlin Christmas market, killing 13 people and hurting many others. The attacker died days later in a shooting in Italy.

Christmas markets are a large part of German culture as an annual Christmas tradition cherished since the Middle Ages and successfully exported to much of the Western world. In Berlin alone, more than 100 markets opened late last month, bringing the smells of mulled wine, roasted almonds and sausages to the capital. Other markets abound throughout the country.

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said late last month that there were no concrete signs of a danger to Christmas markets this year, but that it was prudent to be alert.

Migration has been a major source of tension in German politics since large numbers of refugees and other migrants arrived in 2015. The government has been under pressure to reduce irregular migration and has taken measures including imposing border controls.

Hours after Friday’s alleged attack, the sound of sirens clashed with the market’s festive decorations, stars and leaf garlands.

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Magdeburg resident Dorin Steffen told the German news agency dpa that she was at a concert at a nearby church when she heard the sirens. The cacophony was so loud that “one had to assume that something terrible had happened.”

He called the attack “a dark day” for the city.

“We’re shaking,” Steffen said. “Full of solidarity with the relatives, also with the hope that nothing has happened to our relatives, friends and acquaintances.”

Haseloff called it a catastrophe for the city, state and country.

“It’s really one of the worst things you can imagine, especially in relation to what a Christmas market should bring,” the governor said.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz posted on X: “My thoughts are with the victims and their families. We are at your side and at the side of the people of Magdeburg.”

Magdeburg Mayor Simone Borris, who was close to tears, said authorities planned to organize a memorial at the city’s cathedral on Saturday.

The attack resonated beyond Magdeburg. After Friday night’s soccer match between Bayern Munich and Leipzig, Bayern CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen asked fans in the club’s stadium to observe a minute of silence.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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