At least two people have been killed and dozens injured after a man allegedly rammed the car he was driving into crowds at a Christmas market in the east German city of Magdeburg, in what authorities are treating as an attack.
At least 60 people were injured in the violence on Friday night (local time), said Reiner Haseloff, premier of the state of Saxony-Anhalt, where Magdeburg is the capital.
One of the dead was a young child, Haseloff added.
The suspected driver of the vehicle has been arrested, Haseloff has confirmed.
How did the incident unfold?
The eastern city of Magdeburg is located about 130km southwest of Berlin. People had gathered at the markets to celebrate in the days leading up to Christmas.
German news outlet Der Spiegel, citing security sources, said that a black BMW had barrelled through the crowd at high speed just after 7pm Friday local time (5am Saturday AEDT) when the market was filled with revellers.
A video posted on social media from a position above the market shows a car driving at speed through a crowd walking between two rows of market stalls.
People can be seen knocked to the ground and running away. Reuters said it was able to verify the location, with the trees, outline and design of the buildings matching file and satellite imagery of the area.
Emergency services on duty at the Christmas market in Magdeburg. Source: AAP / Dörthe Hein/DPA
Police made one arrest after the vehicle drove “at least 400 metres across the Christmas market”, leaving behind a trail of bloodied bodies at the city’s central town hall square.
Local television showed ambulances and fire engines at the chaotic site, which was doused in blue light with sirens wailing, as badly injured people were being rushed off to hospitals and others were treated as they lay on the ground.
Cries and screams could be heard as dozens of police, medics and the fire service deployed to the litter-strewn market decorated with Christmas trees and festive lights.
What is known about the suspect?
Haseloff told reporters at the scene that authorities had “arrested the perpetrator”, saying the suspect was a doctor from Saudi Arabia who has been in Germany since 2006.
Haseloff said the man had driven a rented car with Munich licence plates into the market.
“From what we currently know, he was a lone attacker, so we don’t think there is any further danger for the city.”
Local television showed ambulances and fire engines at the chaotic site, with badly injured people rushed off to hospitals and others treated as they lay on the ground. Source: Getty / Craig Stennett
The suspect was 50 years old, Saxony-Anhalt’s regional interior minister Tamara Zieschang said alongside Haseloff. The man lived in Bernburg, some 40km south of Magdeburg, and had “a permanent residence permit”, Zieschang said.
No extremist group has claimed responsibility for the attack, and the suspect was not known to German authorities as an Islamist, according to local broadcaster MDR.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry has condemned the attack.
How have world leaders reacted?
“Horrific news from the Magdeburg Christmas market in Germany,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wrote on social media platform X on Saturday morning.
“My thoughts and those of all Australians are with the victims and their loved ones.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had written on X shortly after the incident that “the reports from Magdeburg raise the worst fears”.
“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.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said he was “profoundly shocked” by the attack and that he “shares the pain of the German people”.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also said she was “deeply shocked by the brutal attack on the defenceless crowd”, adding: “Violence must have no place in our democracies.”
Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sanchez said he was “shocked” by the “terrible attack”.
Attack triggers spat between Elon Musk and German chancellor
Following the attack, Tesla chief executive Elon Musk called on Chancellor Olaf Scholz to resign, posting on his social media platform X that he was an “incompetent fool”.
Musk also wrote: “Only the AfD can save Germany”, referencing the far-right party Alternative for Germany.
The AfD is polling strongly ahead of an expected election, but its candidate for the top job, Alice Weidel, has no realistic chance of becoming chancellor because other parties refuse to work with her party.
Weidel posted a video on X thanking Musk — an ally of US President-elect Donald Trump — and declaring her party “is indeed the one and only alternative for our country; our last option, if you ask me”.
Germany is expected to vote in an early election on February 23 after Scholz’s three-party governing coalition collapsed in November in a dispute over how to revitalise the country’s stagnant economy.
Scholz is hoping to win a second term, but polls have shown the main opposition centre-right Union bloc in the lead and the chancellor’s centre-left Social Democrats trailing well behind.
Asked about Musk’s comment on the AfD at a news conference on Friday, Scholz replied: “We have freedom of opinion — it also goes for multibillionaires, but freedom of opinion also means that you can say things that aren’t right and don’t contain good political advice.
“I say emphatically that the democratic parties in Germany all see it differently.”
What happens next?
Authorities were “in the process of gathering all further data and also conducting an interrogation”, he said.
Scholz is set to visit the scene on Saturday. Haseloff said he and Scholz would discuss the “necessary measures” to be taken next.
“We now need to work through this and draw long-term consequences,” Haseloff said.
A police operation was also underway in the town of Bernburg, south of Magdeburg, where the suspect is believed to have lived, local newspaper Mitteldeutsche Zeitung reported.
Police were not immediately available to comment on the operation in Bernburg.
