German leader to visit site of deadly Christmas market attack

Rescuers and ambulances stand next to tents in which injured people are treated after a car crashed into a crowd at a Christmas market injuring more than 60 people on December 20, 2024 in Magdeburg, eastern Germany. The death toll of the Magdeburg market attack rose to two according to the State Premier. [AFP]

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and other politicians will Saturday visit the scene of a bloody car-ramming that targeted visitors to a Christmas fair in an old market city.

Police arrested a 50-year-old Saudi medical doctor at the site of the assault in which two people were killed and 68 injured when an SUV ploughed through the festive crowd in Magdeburg on Friday night.

So far police were uncertain whether the attack may have been Islamist-inspired or linked to psychological problems.

"The motives remain mysterious," wrote the weekly Der Spiegel.

The attack came almost eight years to the day after Germany suffered its deadliest ever jihadist attack when a Tunisian man drove a truck through a Berlin Christmas market, killing 13.

No extremist group has claimed the latest vehicle-ramming attack to target one of Germany's most beloved religious and cultural festivals.

Some German media pointed to the suspect's past social media posts in which he has expressed views critical of Islam and had even warned of the "dangers" of an Islamisation of Germany.

The sorrow and anger sparked by the attack, where one of those killed was a young child, was sure to inflame a heated debate on immigration and security as Germany heads for February 23 elections.

One woman summed up the stunned mood when she told Die Welt daily: "I don't know in what world we're living in, where someone would use such a peaceful event to spread terror."

The leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), Alice Weidel, which has focused on jihadist attacks in its campaign against immigrants, wrote on X "when will this madness stop?"

'Terrible deed'

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier wrote that "the anticipation of a peaceful Christmas was suddenly interrupted" but cautioned that "the background to the terrible deed has yet been clarified".

"What happened today affects a lot of people. It affects us a lot," Fael Kelion, a 27-year-old Cameroonian living in the city, told AFP.

"I think that since (the suspect) is a foreigner, the population will be unhappy, less welcoming," he said.

A rescuer loads a ladder on an emergency vehicle in the area where a car crashed into a crowd at a Christmas market injuring more than 60 people on December 20, 2024 in Magdeburg, eastern Germany. The death toll of the Magdeburg market attack rose to two according to the State Premier. [AFP]

The black BMW left a trail of devastation when it tore through the traditional festive market in the centre of Magdeburg, southwest of Berlin in the formerly communist east Germany.

The local Volksstimme newspaper said reports from the scene indicated the attacker clearly tried "to hit as many people as possible".

Scholz and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser will on Saturday visit the market, where well-wishers had already left flowers of condolences.

Regional premier Reiner Haseloff said he would discuss the "necessary measures" to be taken with Scholz: "We now need to work through this and draw long-term consequences."

Police said the vehicle drove "at least 400 metres across the Christmas market" leaving behind a trail of destruction, debris and broken glass on the city's central town hall square.

The suspect, named by German media as Taleb A., was a psychiatric doctor who had lived in Germany since 2006 and held a permanent residence permit.

The Saudi government expressed "solidarity with the German people and the families of the victims", in a statement on social media platform X, and "affirmed its rejection of violence".

Series of attacks

Faeser, the interior minister, had recently called on people to be vigilant at Christmas markets, although she said that authorities had not received any specific threats.

Domestic security service the Office for the Protection of the Constitution had warned it considers Christmas markets to be an "ideologically suitable target for Islamist-motivated people".

Germany has in recent times seen a series of suspected Islamist knife attacks which have inflamed public opinion.

Three people were killed and eight wounded in a stabbing spree at a street festival in the western city of Solingen in August.

Police arrested a Syrian suspect over the attack that was claimed by IS.

In June, a policeman was killed in a knife attack in Mannheim, with an Afghan national held as the main suspect.

In the summer, the Scholz government imposed new border controls with European neighbours and pledged to step up deportations of rejected asylum-seekers.

Germany's conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz, who is tipped to replace Scholz, has pledged in his campaign to show "zero tolerance" on crime and "stop illegal migration".