3-Minute
Christmas Market Rampage Shakes Germany
At least
five people, including a 9-year-old child, were killed in the attack, which
took place in the eastern city of Magdeburg. The authorities are still seeking
a motive.
Christopher
F. SchuetzeMelissa Eddy
By
Christopher F. Schuetze and Melissa Eddy
Christopher
F. Schuetze reported from the shuttered market in downtown Magdeburg, Germany,
where the attack took place. Melissa Eddy reported from Berlin.
Dec. 21,
2024
Updated
11:50 a.m. ET
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/21/world/europe/germany-christmas-market-attack.html
In three
horrifying minutes, a 50-year-old Saudi resident of Germany exploited emergency
exit routes and gunned an S.U.V. through a Christmas market packed with
revelers, German officials said on Saturday, as they grappled to piece together
a motive for the attack on Friday evening that rattled the country.
At least
five people, including a 9-year-old child, were killed in the attack, which
took place in the eastern city of Magdeburg. More than 200 others were injured,
and of those, 41 were severely hurt, the authorities have said.
Local
Magdeburg authorities, speaking at a news conference on Saturday at City Hall,
identified the attacker only as Taleb A., in keeping with Germany’s privacy
laws, and said his motive was being investigated.
Ronni Krug,
a member of the Magdeburg City Council, defended the security at the market as
sufficient, saying that the emergency routes exploited by the attacker were
necessary to allow ambulances through and were guarded by the police.
German
officials said that they believed the attack was deliberate, and that the
driver, who was arrested shortly after the attack, acted alone. They had also
said the driver had lived in Germany for decades on a visa that granted him
permanent residency.
Germans had
started the weekend eager to celebrate the start of the holiday season after a
year marked by concerns over the stagnant economy, increasing job cuts and
political paralysis that culminated in the collapse of the German government.
Henriette
Winkler, 36, was one of many Magdeburg residents who had been looking forward
to a quiet and peaceful Christmas, visiting the market hours before the attack.
“Now I almost don’t feel like Christmas anymore,” she said.
Once
entering the market through one emergency exit, the attacker drove through the
crowds packing alleyways lined with stands, before leaving the market through
another emergency exit, Tom-Oliver Langhans, the director of the police in
Magdeburg, said at the news conference.
Shortly
afterward, the driver was arrested, and he is under investigation on suspicion
of five counts of murder and more than 200 counts of attempted murder.
After the
attack, video broadcast on German television showed a man with a trim beard and
round, wire-rimmed glasses lying prone on the ground beside a BMW with a
crumpled front fender and grill, as officers pointing pistols at him shouted at
him not to move.
The
authorities said the suspect lived in Bernburg, about 25 miles south of
Magdeburg. Heavily armed police searched an apartment in the town late Friday.
The Salus Clinic confirmed to local news media that the doctor worked as a
specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy at their hospital, the media
reported. He first came to Germany in 2006, the authorities said.
The doctor
had an active social media presence that included postings criticizing Germany
for what he called the authorities’ tolerance of radical Islam, German news
media reported. A security official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity
because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that those reports were
accurate.
In his
social media, the man also expressed support for the anti-immigrant Alternative
for Germany party and reposted comments by party leaders warning of the threat
of Islamic law being imposed in Germany.
Chancellor
Olaf Scholz, accompanied by several of his ministers, on Saturday visited the
site of the attack, and laid flowers at a memorial across from the market.
In 2016, an
Islamic extremist rammed a semi truck into a crowd in at a Christmas market in
central Berlin, killing 13. Since then, bollards blocking the entrances to
street festivals and holiday markets in Germany have become standard, as have
security cameras and increased police presence, including plainclothes officers
circulating among the crowds.
This year,
knives were banned at holiday markets across the country and security at the
Magdeburg market had been increased, after an armed man killed three people at
a street festival in western Germany in August.
In
Magdeburg, a line of large concrete blocks painted red and green had been
placed at the perimeter of the Christmas market, which was set up in narrow
streets holding wooden stalls decorated with twinkling lights and selling hot
mulled wine, sausages and gifts.
“It is not
100 percent possible to protect such events,” said Andreas Rosskopf, the head
of the federal police union.
After
Friday’s attack, cities across Germany sent extra patrols to the thousands of
Christmas markets that remained open on Saturday. In Cologne, the authorities
banned suitcases and larger bags at the market around the city’s cathedral. In
Leipzig, the police set up extra barriers at the entrances to the market.
“We will
need to speak about security, but not today,” Reiner Haseloff, the governor of
Saxony-Anhalt state, told reporters on Saturday. “Today we are mourning.”
Germany
needed to have an “intense discussion” about what it would take to “give
citizens the feeling that in Germany, we not only have secure Christmas
markets, but that we are able to live our lives how we want to,” Mr. Haseloff
said.
Magdeburg,
which is the capital of Saxony-Anhalt and has a population of about 240,000,
was part of Communist East Germany. The annual market is set up in the center
of the city, in front of City Hall. On Saturday, people came to lay flowers at
a memorial set up on the steps of the Johanniskirche, or St. John’s Church,
near the attack site.
The pile of
flowers at the steps of the church grew throughout the day on Saturday as
visibly shaken people stopped by to pay their respects and to mourn.
Marko Heyer,
49, of Magdeburg, came with his wife to the church, both of them fighting back
tears. Mr. Heyer recalled visiting the market — with its fairy-tale section
with figures that recounted stories to children, as well as with the usual
stands selling food and gifts — when he was a boy.
“In my
opinion, it was the nicest Christmas market in Germany,” he said. “It will
never be the same again.”
Surveillance
footage circulating on social media and verified by The New York Times on
Friday shows a car plowing into a large crowd at the market shortly after 7
p.m. The car then turns right onto another crowded street. Video of the
aftermath shows people helping the wounded as cries are heard.
A couple who
were at the market during the attack told a German television station that a
black S.U.V. suddenly careened into an alley packed with people who had come to
celebrate the start of the last weekend before Christmas. The car drove some
1,200 feet before it stopped, officials said.
“It all
happened so quickly,” the couple said.
Christopher
F. Schuetze is a reporter for The Times based in Berlin, covering politics,
society and culture in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. More about Christopher
F. Schuetze
Melissa Eddy
is based in Berlin and reports on Germany’s politics, businesses and its
economy. More about Melissa Eddy
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