Christmas market attack
The eastern city of Magdeburg was the scene of the attack on Friday night.
LONDON –German officials said on Saturday that the vehicle-ramming attack on a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg on Friday had killed at least five people, including a 9-year-old. Police say the four other people slain in the incident were adults.
According to Minister President of Saxony-Anhalt Reiner Haseloff, a car crashed into jubilant market-goers in the eastern German city, around 75 miles west of the capital Berlin, injuring at least 200 more.
Police informed reporters on Saturday that the Magdeburg Christmas market would be shut down for the rest of the season.
According to officials, at least 41 of the attack’s victims are in critical condition. Chancellor Olaf Scholz said they still believe their lives are in jeopardy.
According to Haselhoff, a suspect—a Saudi Arabian physician in his 50s—was taken into custody. Since 2006, the man has resided in Germany. According to the minister, the attack involved a rental automobile.
Police say he will face five charges of murder and grievous bodily harm.
According to a police officer, the motorist was detained within three minutes of the attack after the first emergency contact was received at 7:02 p.m. local time. The suspect, according to the police, came through the section that was left open for emergency vehicles to enter.
The culprit, according to the police, acted alone.
A motive for the attack is still being investigated, according to the prosecutor, but it may be related to “dissatisfaction with the treatment of refugees from Saudi Arabia and how they’ve been treated in Germany,” though they “need more time” to ascertain this.
The suspect has reportedly undergone psychiatric and physical testing, but the findings are still pending, according to the police.
On Saturday, a memorial ceremony for the victims was held in Magdeburg Cathedral, drawing a sizable crowd both inside and outside. First responders, Sholz, and the mayor were among those there.
A smaller group of people protested against immigrants elsewhere in the city, holding a sign that read “Remigration” and waving German flags, flags of Imperial Germany, and flags that read “Homeland.”
German officials are treating the attack as a terrorist event, according to U.S. law enforcement sources who spoke to ABC News.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller issued a statement saying, “We send our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of those killed and injured and to all those affected by this terrible incident.”
“We express our sympathy to the German people in their loss of life. As authorities look into this terrible occurrence and recovery work continue, the United States is prepared to offer support,” Miller’s statement went on.
Scholz expressed his sympathies to the impacted individuals. “My thoughts are with the victims and their families,” Scholz stated in a statement. “We support the Magdeburg community and stand by them. I want to express my gratitude to the hard-working rescuers during these stressful times.
Nearly eight years had passed since a similar terror attack at a German city Christmas market before Friday’s ramming tragedy. Thirteen people were killed and numerous others were injured after a man crashed a truck into a crowd at a Berlin market on December 19, 2016.
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Similar car-ramming attacks on American territory have been forewarned by U.S. law enforcement officials, especially around the holiday season.
For instance, a joint threat assessment for New Year’s Eve in Times Square, New York City, stated that vehicle-ramming, either by itself or in combination with other strategies, “has become a recurring tactic employed by threat actors in the West.”
According to NYPD deputy commissioner for counterterrorism Rebecca Weiner, the NYPD will deploy more resources to similar locations throughout the city, including Christmas markets, out of extreme caution.
“We know this is a very festive time, it is a busy time in the city, and we are going to make sure that all of our holiday markets, all of our holiday activities are protected by our counter weapons teams, by officers on patrol, all our counter-terrorism officers, our critical response command,” Weiner told WABC, an ABC affiliate in New York.
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