Two
killed and scores injured in Germany as car ploughs into crowd at Christmas
market
Dark BMW
reportedly drove into crowd in eastern German town of Magdeburg in what is
being described as a terror attack
Kate
Connolly in Berlin
Fri 20 Dec
2024 19.40 GMT
Scores of
people were injured and at least two people, including a small child, were
killed on Friday 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.
At least 68
other people were injured, including 15 who were left in a critical state,
according to the city government.
In the
attack, a black BMW drove straight into the crowd at the Christmas market,
travelling at speed for 400 metres in the direction of the town hall, according
to eyewitnesses cited by the broadcaster.
Videos
posted on social media showed a dark-coloured car driving into the crowds at
high speed. Several media outlets showed the videos in their coverage, but the
authenticity of the footage has yet to be officially confirmed.
Emergency
workers were seen treating victims on the ground at the market, surrounded by
blood. Makeshift tents were erected at the site. Witnesses reported hearing
cries and screams. The operator of a food stall on the market described the
scenes as “reminiscent of a war”.
“This is a
terrible event, particularly now in the days before Christmas,” Saxony-Anhalt’s
leader Reiner Haseloff, who was on his way to Magdeburg, said.
The driver
of the car was immediately arrested, and later identified as Taleb A., a
50-year-old medical doctor from Saudi Arabia. Haseloff said the man had been
living in Germany since 2006. The suspect, a consultant for psychiatry and
psychotherapy, was recognised as a refugee in 2016.
Some German
media pointed to the suspect’s past social media posts in which he reportedly
expressed views critical of Islam and had even warned of the “dangers” of an
Islamisation of Germany.
Footage from
the scene showed the alleged perpetrator lying on the ground, his head raised,
next to a badly damaged black car. A policeman metres from him is pointing a
drawn weapon in his direction as passersby look on in shock.
“As things
stand, he is a lone perpetrator, so that as far as we know there is no further
danger to the city,” Haseloff said.
The suspect
rented the car shortly before the attack, according to reports citing a
security source, and was not known to authorities as having an Islamist
background.
A woman who
spoke to the regional newspaper, the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung said that the
perpetrator had “driven deliberately into the section of the Christmas market
decked out with scenes from fairytales”, where a lot of families with young
children were gathered. She told the paper she had just managed to fling
herself and her child out of the path of the vehicle.
After the
incident, police cleared an area surrounding the vehicle to investigate a
possible explosive device, local broadcaster MDR reported. It later cited
police as saying that no such device had been found.
A police
operation was also under way in the town of Bernburg, south of Magdeburg, where
the suspect is believed to have lived, local newspaper Mitteldeutsche Zeitung
reported.
Police were
not immediately available to comment on the reports of a suspicious item or the
operation in Bernburg.
“The reports
from Magdeburg raise the worst fears,” the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said
on social media platform X. He was due to travel to Magdeburg on Saturday along
with the interior minister, Nancy Faeser, according to their spokespeople.
The German
president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, wrote that “the anticipation of a peaceful
Christmas was suddenly interrupted” in the attack but cautioned that “the
background to the terrible deed has yet been clarified”.
Alice
Weidel, the leader of the AfD, which has focused on jihadist attacks in its
campaign against immigrants, wrote on X: “When will this madness stop?”
The Saudi
government expressed “solidarity with the German people and the families of the
victims”, in a statement on X, and “affirmed its rejection of violence”.
French
president Emmanuel Macron said he was “profoundly shocked” by the attack,
adding that he “shares the pain of the German people”.
Michael
Reif, spokesperson for the city, addressed journalists near the market,
confirming that the incident had taken place at about 7.04pm local time and was
being treated as a terror attack rather than an accident.
He said:
“The images are terrible. According to my knowledge, the car drove into the
crowds of visitors … but from what direction and how far it went, I can’t say.”
Magdeburg’s
mayor Regina-Dolores Stieler-Hinz said at least one person had died and more
than 50 were injured. Emergency services said that the number might be up to
80.
Hospitals
within a 50-mile (80km) radius of Magdeburg were geared up to take patients,
while all the region’s emergency helicopters were deployed to the incident.
A witness
identified as Nadine, 32, from Wolfsburg, told the tabloid Bild she was looking
for her boyfriend Marco, who was torn from her side when the car raced into the
crowds. “He was hit by the car and ripped away from me,” she said. “It was
terrible. No one even screamed. I didn’t even hear the car.” Marco received
injuries to his head and leg, she said. “We don’t know in what hospital he’s
been sent to. The uncertainty is unbearable”.
Security
experts said they were astounded that the man was able to drive into the market
despite the heavy-set bollards which had been installed to prevent such an
attack.
Hans-Jakob
Schindler, a terrorist expert, told German media: “In the first instance it’s a
surprise that a vehicle of that size was able to drive onto a Christmas market
in Germany.”
Germany is
home to an estimated 2,500 to 3,000 Christmas markets which are hosted around
the country for about a month, from the end of November to just after
Christmas.
Keeping the
markets secure has been a major issue ever since 2016 when an Islamist
extremist attacker drove a truck into a crowd of Christmas market-goers in
Berlin, leaving 13 people dead and dozens more injured. The attacker was killed
days later in a shootout in Italy.
Faeser had
said late last month that there were no concrete indications of a danger to
Christmas markets this year, but that it was wise to be vigilant. Many
Christmas markets, including the one on Breitscheidplatz in Berlin, which was
the target of the attack in 2016, have installed extra security including
traffic bollards, in an attempt to prevent it from happening again.
Germany has
in recent times also seen a series of suspected Islamist knife attacks. 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, which was claimed by IS.
In June, a
police officer was killed in a knife attack in Mannheim, with an Afghan
national held as the main suspect.
On Friday
night the Facebook page of the Magdeburg market carried the message: “The
Christmas market is now closed for today. We ask for your understanding.”
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário