At Least 2 Killed In Car Ramming At German Christmas Market

Police work at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg after a car drove into a group of people, killing at least two.

Police work at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg after a car drove into a group of people, killing at least two.

At least two people were killed and more than 60 injured after a car drove at high speed into a busy outdoor Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, German officials said on December 20.

The car plowed into the market in what authorities suspect was an intentional act in the city in the state of Saxony-Anhalt.

“This is a terrible event, particularly now in the days before Christmas," Saxony-Anhalt Governor Reiner Haseloff said.

The driver of the car was arrested. Haseloff told reporters that the suspect is a 50-year-old doctor from Saudi Arabia who first came to Germany in 2006. He had not been on law enforcement's radar as a known Islamist, security sources told the dpa news agency.

"From what we currently know he was a lone attacker, so we don't think there is any further danger for the city," Haseloff said.

Haseloff said the two people confirmed dead were an adult and a toddler, and he couldn’t rule out further deaths.

Police evacuated the area as they suspected there could be a bomb still in the car that was driven into the market.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he plans to visit the city on December 21.

“The reports from Magdeburg suggest something terrible is to come. My thoughts are with the victims and their families. We stand by their side and by the side of the people of Magdeburg. My thanks go to the dedicated rescue workers in these anxious hours,” Scholz said on X.

French President Emmanuel Macron also reacted on X.

“Deeply shocked by the horror that struck the Magdeburg Christmas market in Germany this evening. My thoughts are with the victims, the injured, and their loved ones and families. France shares the pain of the German people and expresses its full solidarity,” he said.

Magdeburg, a city of about 240,000 residents west of Berlin, is the state capital of Saxony-Anhalt.

The suspected attack came eight years after an Islamic extremist plowed into a Christmas market in Berlin. killing 13 people and injuring dozens more. The attacker was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.

With reporting by AP, dpa, and AFP