What we know about the attack on the Christmas market in Magdeburg

On December 23, 2024By Littum

MAGDEBURG, Germany (AP) – Four women and a 9-year-old boy were killed and 200 people were injured when a man drove into a Christmas market teeming with holiday shoppers in the German city of Magdeburg – an attack that has left Germans grieving the victims and with a shaken sense of security.

How did the attack develop?

At first, Thi Linh Chi Nguyen thought the loud bangs were fireworks. The 34-year-old manicurist from Vietnam, whose salon is near the Christmas market, was on the phone during a break when she heard the noise just after 7pm on Friday. Then she saw a car speeding through the market. People screamed and a child was thrown into the air by the car.

The Christmas market, where a car drove into a crowd Friday night, in Magdeburg, Germany, is empty on Saturday evening, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

The woman recalled seeing the car blast out of the market and turn right onto Ernst-Reuter-Allee street, then stop at a tram stop, where the suspect was arrested.

The Christmas market was surrounded by concrete barriers designed to prevent attacks, but there was a gap left for emergency access, wide enough for a car to drive through.

The market area reopened on Sunday and residents walked slowly between the closed food, drink and craft stalls. Nearby, people stopped to light candles or leave flowers at a growing makeshift memorial.

Who are the victims?

Police say the dead are four women aged 45, 52, 67 and 75 and a boy aged 9. He was named as André Gleissner by fire officials in the Elm-Asse region west of Magdeburg, where he was a member of the children’s fire brigade.

Authorities said 200 people were injured, 41 of them in serious condition. They were treated in several hospitals in Magdeburg, which is about 130 kilometers west of Berlin and beyond.

Who is suspected of the attack?

Prosecutors said the suspect, a 50-year-old Saudi doctoris under investigation on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and bodily harm. In a closed court hearing Saturday night, a judge ordered that he be held in custody pending possible charges.

Several German media identified the suspect as Taleb A., withholding 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, practiced medicine in Bernburg, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Magdeburg.

People light candles at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany on Saturday evening, December 21, 2024, where a car drove into a crowd on Friday evening. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

The suspect’s X account describes him as a former Muslim. It is filled with tweets and retweets focusing on anti-Islam themes and criticism of the religion, while sharing congratulatory notes to Muslims who left the faith. He was critical of the German authorities, saying they had not done enough to combat the “Islamification of Europe”. He has also expressed support for the far-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

What was the motive?

Investigators are analyzing the suspect’s computers, mobile devices and other evidence, trying to understand what motivated him to drive his black BMW into a crowd in the eastern German city. Prosecutors said the motive may have been “dissatisfaction with the treatment of Saudi refugees in Germany.”

Intelligence agencies say they are increasingly seeing attackers with a confusing mix of beliefs and motives. The head of Britain’s domestic intelligence service MI5, Ken McCallum, said in October that “even labels like ‘Islamist terrorism’ or ‘extreme right’ do not fully reflect the dizzying array of beliefs and ideologies we see.”

People lay flowers and light candles on concrete blocks protecting the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024, where a car drove into a crowd on Friday night. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

There are unanswered questions about what authorities knew about the suspect. The head of the Federal Criminal Police, Holger Münch, said the agency – Germany’s equivalent of the FBI – received a warning from Saudi Arabia in November 2023, but that the information was non-specific.

Münch said the suspect “published a large number of posts on the Internet”, was in contact with various authorities and “made insults and even threats” – but was not known to be violent.

Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees also acknowledged it had received a warning about the suspect last year.

The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, is facing criticism over security breaches that allowed the attack to happen and was heckled by some onlookers during a visit to Magdeburg on Saturday.

A series of attacks

The violence shocked all of Germany and prompted several other German cities to cancel their weekend Christmas markets as a precaution and in solidarity with Magdeburg’s loss. Berlin kept its markets open but increased the police presence.

Germany has been exposed to several extremist attacks in recent years, including a knife attack that killed three people and injured eight at a festival in the western town of Solingen in August. Friday’s attack came eight years after one Islamic extremist drove a truck into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killed 13 people and hurt many others.

These attacks have prompted cities to increase security at Christmas markets and other events.

The horror sparked by yet another act of mass violence in Germany makes it likely that migration will remain a key issue as Germans move towards an early election on 23 Feb.

It is the latest in a series of events around the world in which vehicles have been used as weapons by jihadist attackers, right-wing extremists and others whose motives were unclear.