Germany in shock after new deadly Christmas attack; death toll rises to 5
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On Dec 20, a sport utility vehicle ploughed into the crowd at a Christmas market in the eastern German city Magdeburg.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
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MAGDEBURG – Germany reeled from the shock of a deadly attack on a crowded Christmas market in the eastern city of Magdeburg, as the authorities began their search for a motive.
A man ploughed a sport utility vehicle into the crowd at a Christmas market set up in a narrow alley on the evening of Dec 20 in Magdeburg, formerly a part of East Germany, with a population of about 240,000.
At least five people were killed and more than 200 injured, dozens of them seriously, Saxony-Anhalt state’s Premier Reiner Haseloff said on Dec 21, updating the toll. A young child was among the dead.
Surveillance footage circulating on social media shows a black BMW ramming into a large crowd
The vehicle travelled some 365m before it stopped, officials said.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited the market on Dec 21, where he described the attack as a “terrible catastrophe”.
He said Germany would respond “with the full force of the law” over “the terrible attack that injured and killed so many people”.
He also made a call for national unity at a time when Germany has been rocked by a heated debate on immigration and security as it heads for elections on Feb 23, 2025
Mr Scholz said it is important “that we stay together as a country, that we stick together, that we link arms, that it is not hatred that determines our coexistence but the fact that we are a community that seeks a common future”.
He said he was grateful for expressions of “solidarity... from many, many countries around the world”.
“It is good to hear that we, as Germans, are not alone in the face of this terrible catastrophe,” he said.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, who accompanied Mr Scholz, has called on people to be vigilant at Christmas markets, although she said the authorities did not receive any specific threats.
Germany’s domestic security service, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, had warned that it considers Christmas markets to be an “ideologically suitable target for Islamist-motivated people”.
Police said the driver of the vehicle was a 50-year-old citizen of Saudi Arabia who has lived in Germany for decades on a visa that granted him permanent residency.
The authorities said they believed the attack was deliberate, but that the driver acted alone.
Ms Faeser said that while she did not want to speculate about the motive, “the one thing” she could confirm was that the suspect had “Islamophobic” views.
Police searched an apartment in a town 40km south of Magdeburg where the suspect was reported to have lived and worked as a psychotherapist.
A source told Reuters that Saudi Arabia had warned the German authorities about the suspect after he posted extremist views on his X account that threatened peace and security.
Der Spiegel reported that the suspect sympathised with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. The magazine did not say where it got the information.
The assault came almost eight years to the day after Germany suffered its deadliest Islamist attack when a Tunisian man drove a truck through a Berlin Christmas market, killing 13.
One woman summed up the stunned mood when she told Die Welt daily: “I don’t know in what world we’re living in, where someone would use such a peaceful event to spread terror.”
AfD leader Alice Weidel wrote on X: “When will this madness stop?”
‘Terrible deed’
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier wrote that “the anticipation of a peaceful Christmas was suddenly interrupted”, but cautioned that “the background to the terrible deed” has not been clarified.
Mr Fael Kelion, a 27-year-old Cameroonian living in the city, said: “What happened today affects a lot of people. It affects us a lot.
“I think that since (the suspect) is a foreigner, the population will be unhappy, less welcoming.”
Mr Michael Raarig, 67 an engineer, expressed his sorrow at the site.
“I am sad, I am shocked. I never would have believed this could happen, here in an east German provincial town,” he said.
He added that he believed the attack “will play into the hands of the AfD”.
Germany has in recent times seen a series of suspected Islamist knife attacks that have inflamed public opinion.
Three people were killed and eight wounded in a stabbing spree
In June, a policeman was killed in a knife attack in Mannheim, with an Afghan national held as the main suspect.
In the summer, Mr Scholz’s government imposed new border controls with European neighbours and pledged to step up deportations of rejected asylum seekers.
Germany’s conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz, who is tipped to replace Mr Scholz, has pledged in his campaign to show “zero tolerance” on crime and “stop illegal migration”. REUTERS, AFP
