Child among five dead while 40 people remain in critical condition

 

Child among five dead while 40 people remain in critical condition

3h ago

15.55 GMT

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/dec/21/germany-christmas-market-attack-magdeburg-saudi-doctor-arrested-car-crowd?filterKeyEvents=false&page=with%3Ablock-6766dc968f08f9aca44e65a2#block-6766dc968f08f9aca44e65a2

 

The day so far

Five people, including a child, have died after a car ploughed into a crowd of people at a Christmas market in the eastern German town of Magdeburg, in what local officials are describing as a terror attack.

 

More then 200 people were injured in the attack, with 40 in critical condition.

 

Police have arrested a 50-year-old doctor from Saudi Arabia who they believe is responsible for the attack, according to the German state premier, Reiner Haseloff.

 

A Saudi source told Reuters that Saudi Arabia had warned German authorities about the attacker after he posted extremist views on his personal X account that threatened peace and security. Der Spiegel reported that the suspect had sympathised with the AfD. The magazine did not say where it got the information.

 

Chancellor Olaf Scholz described the deadly attack in Magdeburg as a “terrible, insane act”. He said there is “no place more peaceful and cheerful than a Christmas market,” where people go with friends and family to enjoy a gluhwein (hot punch) and seek some contemplation and joy.

 

Leader of Saxony Anhalt state Reiner Haseloff describes the scene as “an unimaginable incident”. Haselhof says the scale of the attack is much bigger than previously thought, with the death toll having risen and the extent of those injured much larger than the estimates given last night.

 

A woman in her 50s with a bad bruise to her right eye, has told the tabloid Bild how she and her husband were “flung in the air” in the attack. She was initially unconscious, her husband suffered injuries to his upper thigh and described how the “flesh was ripped out” of it in the impact.

 

Mourners lit candles and placed flowers outside a church near the market on the cold and gloomy day. Several people stopped and cried. A Berlin church choir whose members witnessed a previous Christmas market attack in 2016 sang Amazing Grace, a hymn about God’s mercy, offering their prayers and solidarity with the victims.