BERLIN: At least two people have died after a car drove into shoppers at a crowded Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg on Friday evening, local authorities have confirmed.
At least 60 people were injured, 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.
Police have arrested the suspected attacker, who Haseloff described as a doctor from Saudi Arabia who was acting alone.
“It’s a terrible tragedy. It is a catastrophe for the city of Magdeburg, for the state and for Germany in general,” Haseloff said.
Police declined to give casualty numbers, confirming only a large-scale operation at the market, where people had gathered to celebrate in the days leading up to the Christmas holidays.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said reports indicated something bad had happened.
“My thoughts are with the victims and their families,” he wrote in a post on social media platform X.
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 was able to verify the location, with the trees, outline and design of the buildings matching file and satellite imagery of the area.
Late last month, German interior minister Nancy Faeser advised people to be vigilant at Christmas markets.
Eight years ago, a truck driven by Anis Amri, a failed Tunisian asylum seeker, crashed into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people and injuring dozens of others.