The driver was arrested at the scene after the car entered the market around 7pm amid a throng of holiday shoppers waiting for the weekend.
Certified bystander footage distributed by German news agency dpa shows the suspect being arrested on a sidewalk in the middle of the street. A nearby police officer pointed a gun at the man as he ducked and screamed. Other officers soon arrived to take the man into custody.
The dead were confirmed to be two people, an adult and a child, but officials said more deaths could not be ruled out as 15 people were seriously injured.
The violence shocked the city, brought its mayor to the brink of tears and marred a celebration that was part of a centuries-old German tradition. This prompted many other German cities to cancel their weekend Christmas markets as a precaution and in solidarity with the loss of Magdeburg.
The suspect is a 50-year-old Saudi doctor who traveled to Germany in 2006, Saxony-Anhalt state interior minister Tamara Zieschang told a news conference. She said she was practicing medicine in Berenburg, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Magdeburg.
“As things stand, he is the lone criminal, as far as we know there is no threat to the city,” Saxony-Anhalt governor Rainer Hesseloff told reporters. Every human life lost in this attack is a terrible tragedy and one human life is too many.”
The violence took place in Magdeburg, a city of about 240,000 people west of Berlin, which is considered the capital of Saxony-Anhalt. Friday’s attack comes eight years after an Islamic extremist rammed a truck into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing 13 people and injuring scores more. The attacker was killed in a shootout in Italy a few days later.
Christmas markets are a huge part of German culture, cherished since the Middle Ages as an annual holiday tradition and successfully exported to much of the Western world. In Berlin alone, more than 100 markets opened at the end of last month and brought the smell of mulled wine, roasted peanuts and bratwurst to the capital. Other markets abound throughout the country.
German Interior Minister Nancy Fesser said late last month that there were no concrete signs of a threat to Christmas markets this year, but it was wise to remain vigilant.
Hours after Friday’s tragedy, the wail of sirens clashed with the market’s festive decorations, stars and garlands of leaves.
Doreen Steffen, a resident of Magdeburg, told dpa that she was at a concert in a nearby church when she heard sirens. The cacophony was so loud “you had to believe something terrible had happened.”
He called the attack a “dark day” for the city.
“We’re shaking,” Steffen said. “Full of sympathy to the relatives, hoping that nothing happens to our relatives, friends and acquaintances.”
The attack reverberated far beyond Magdeburg, with Hasselhoff calling it a disaster for the city, the state and the country. He said flags in Saxony-Anhalt will be lowered to half-staff and the federal government plans to do the same.
“It’s really one of the worst things imaginable, especially in relation to what the Christmas market is supposed to bring,” the governor said.
Chancellor OIaf Scholz posted on X: “My thoughts are with the victims and their relatives. We stand by them and by the people of Magdeburg.”
NATO Secretary General, President of the European Commission and Vice President-elect JD Vance also expressed condolences on X.
“Our prayers go out to the people affected by this terrible attack on a Christmas market in Germany. What a terrible attack so close to Christmas,” Vance wrote.
Magdeburg Mayor Simon Boris, who was on the verge of tears, said authorities planned to hold a memorial at the city’s cathedral on Saturday.
After Friday evening’s soccer match between Bayern Munich and Leipzig, Bayern CEO Jan-Christian Dressen asked fans in the club’s stadium to observe a minute of silence.