MAGDEBURG, Germany (AP) — Five people died, including a 9-year-old boy, after a Saudi doctor plowed his car into a Christmas market full of shoppers in the German city of Magdeburg, authorities said Saturday, as the People mourned the victims, and their sense of security was shattered.
City official Ronni Krug did not provide further information about the adults who died in the Friday night attack. He said 200 people were injured, of whom 41 were in serious or very serious condition.
How did the attack develop?
Thi Linh Chi Nguyen, a 34-year-old Vietnamese manicurist whose salon is located in a shopping center across from the Christmas market, was talking on the phone during a break when she heard loud bangs and initially thought it was fireworks. Then he saw a car go through the market at high speed. People were screaming and the car threw a child into the air.
The woman recalled watching the car leave the market, turn right onto Ernst-Reuter-Allee and stop at the tram stop where the suspect was arrested.
The market itself was still cordoned off Saturday with red and white tape and police vans every 50 meters (54.6 yards). Police with machine guns guarded all entrances to the market. Some thermal security blankets still lay on the street.
Who is the man behind the attack?
Prosecutors said the suspect, a 50-year-old Saudi doctor, is being investigated on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and bodily harm.
Several German media outlets identified the suspect as Taleb A., omitting his last name in accordance with privacy laws, and reported that he was a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy. He has lived in Germany since 2006, practicing medicine in Bernburg, about 40 kilometers south of Magdeburg, officials said.
Taleb’s X account describes him as an ex-Muslim. It is full of tweets and retweets focused on anti-Islam issues and criticism of the religion, as well as sharing congratulatory notes to Muslims who left the faith. He criticized German authorities, saying they had not done enough to combat the “Islamism of Europe.” He has also expressed support for the far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Some people described Taleb as an activist who helped Saudi women EXPLAIN-GERMANY-CHRISTMAS MARKET-ATTACKS flee their homeland. Recently, he seemed focused on his theory that German authorities have been persecuting Saudi asylum seekers.
The reasons for the attack
As of Saturday, there were no answers as to what motivated the man to drive his black BMW into a crowd in the eastern German city.
Prosecutors said the motive could have been “dissatisfaction with the treatment of Saudi refugees in Germany,” but investigators are still trying to get to the bottom of what was behind the attack.
Investigators must analyze computers, mobile devices and other evidence, “and at the end of the day we will know, or at least we hope to know, what prompted him to commit this act.”
A wave of violence
The violence shocked Germany and the city, causing other German cities to cancel their weekend Christmas markets as a precaution, and in solidarity with the Magdeburg tragedy. Berlin kept its markets open, but increased the police presence there.
Germany has suffered a series of extremist attacks in recent years, including a knife attack in August that left three people dead and eight injured at a festival in the western city of Solingen. These attacks have caused cities to tighten security at Christmas markets and other events.
Friday’s attack came eight years after an Islamic extremist drove a truck into a busy Christmas market in Berlin, killing 13 people and injuring many others. The attacker was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.
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This story was translated from English by an AP editor with the help of a generative artificial intelligence tool.
This article was published by ASSOCIATED PRESS on 2024-12-21 19:30:00
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