Magdeburg: A Saudi Arabian national has been arrested after an SUV plowed into a crowd of revelers at a Christmas market on Friday, leaving a trail of bloody carnage.
Authorities in the city of Magdeburg, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) southwest of Berlin, said at least two people were killed, including a child, and 68 others were injured.
The suspect was a 50-year-old medical doctor from Saudi Arabia living in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, regional Premier Rainer Hesseloff said, speaking at the scene, which was cordoned off and secured by police commandos.
“We have arrested the perpetrator, a man from Saudi Arabia, a doctor who has been in Germany since 2006,” he told reporters, calling the attack a “disaster” for the city and the country.
“We now know he was a lone attacker so we don’t think there is any danger.”
German media have partially named the suspect as Taleb A. as a doctor of psychiatry.
At 7:00 pm local time (1800 GMT) a black BMW sped through the crowd as the market filled with revelers.
Video footage showed the driver being arrested as police trained their handguns shouting “Lie down, put your hands behind your back, don’t move!” At a bearded man with glasses who was lying on the ground next to a heavily damaged car.
Police said the vehicle “drove through at least 400 meters of the Christmas market” and left a trail of bloodied casualties, debris and broken glass in the city’s central Town Hall Square.
Ambulances and fire engines rushed to the chaotic site, which was engulfed in blue police lights and wailing sirens, as the badly injured were treated at the site and taken to hospitals.
About 100 emergency responders shouted and screamed as they deployed to the dirt-filled market, decorated with Christmas trees and festive lights.
“The photos are horrific,” said city spokesman Michael Reif.
– Series of attacks –
The deadly massacre brought to mind the 2016 jihadist attack in which a Tunisian man driving a lorry killed 12 people at a Christmas market in Berlin, the country’s worst attack.
A 13th victim later died of serious injuries in the attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz wrote in X that “the Magdeburg report raises the worst fears”.
“My thoughts are with the victims and their families. We stand by them and the people of Magdeburg. My thanks go to the dedicated rescue workers in this hour of concern.”
Scholz was expected to travel to the city on Saturday, the head of state said.
German Interior Minister Nancy Fesser recently called on people to be vigilant at Christmas markets, although she said authorities had not received any specific threats.
The Office for the Protection of the Homeland Security Service warned that it considers Christmas markets to be “ideologically appropriate targets for Islamist-inspired people”.
Germany has seen a series of suspected Islamist knife attacks in recent days.
In August, three people were killed and eight injured in a stabbing at a street festival in the western city of Solingen.
The police have arrested a Syrian suspect on the charge that ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
In June, a policeman was killed in a knife attack in Mannheim, in which an Afghan national was arrested as the main suspect.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier wrote that the attack “suddenly interrupted the anticipation of a peaceful Christmas” but warned that “the background to the terrible act has not yet been clarified”.
Alice Wiedel, leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has focused on jihadist attacks in its campaign against migrants, wrote in X “When will this madness stop?”
In a statement on social media platform X, the Saudi government expressed “solidarity with the German people and the families of the victims” and affirmed its “rejection of violence”.
French President Emmanuel Macron said he was “deeply shocked” by the attack and “shared the pain of the German people”.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also condemned the “brutal attack on a defenseless crowd” and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez expressed grief over the “horrific attack”.