At least two people are dead and as many as 68 injured after a car rammed into a crowded Christmas market in the city of Magdeburg, the capital of the central German state of Saxony-Anhalt.
Officials on Friday night described the incident as an intentional attack and announced that the driver had been taken into custody at the scene. An investigation is under way.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was among the many offering their condolences in the immediate aftermath of the incident. His office indicated that he would be visiting the scene on Saturday.
“The reports from Magdeburg suggest something terrible has happened. My thoughts are with the victims and their families,” Scholz wrote on the social media platform X.
“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.”
The interior minister for Saxony-Anhalt, Tamara Zieschang, identified the suspect as a 50-year-old doctor from Saudi Arabia who arrived in Germany in 2006. He was previously unknown to security services.
Another state official, Premier Reiner Haseloff, told a local news outlets that one of the dead was a child and the other an adult. He added that he could not say whether there would be further deaths as a result of the suspected attack.
“That is speculation now. Every human life that has fallen victim to this attack is a terrible tragedy and one human life too many,” Haseloff told reporters.
He said that officials currently believe the suspect in custody was the sole perpetrator behind the car ramming.
“As things stand, he is a lone perpetrator, so that as far as we know, there is no further danger to the city,” Haseloff told reporters.
Among the injured, 15 were identified as being in critical condition, according to the city government’s website. Another 37 people had injuries of medium severity and 16 were lightly injured.
Local media reports indicate the car involved was seen driving at high speeds before striking the crowd at about 7pm local time (18:00 GMT).
Christmas markets are a tradition dating back to the Middle Ages in German-speaking parts of Europe. In Magdeburg, a city of about 240,000 residents, the market was set up in a town square, with stalls selling regional food and drink.
“It’s a terrible tragedy. This is a catastrophe for the city of Magdeburg and for the state, and for German generally as well,” Haseloff said. “It is really one of the worst things one can imagine, particularly in connection with what a Christmas market should bring.”
Al Jazeera correspondent Dominic Kane, who was headed to the scene of Friday’s suspected attack, said the Christmas market would have been especially crowded when the car struck.
“ It’s the last Friday before Christmas. It’s the tradition all over Germany that Christmas markets are places that people go to, especially on Friday night,” Kane said.
“And then think about the physical geography of the market concerned, where it is. It’s not that far from the town… not that far from the river Elbe, in quite a picturesque city actually. So there will have been lots of reasons for people to be in the centre of the city at the time.”
Kane added that the suspect’s reported use of a rental car would provide investigators an avenue to learn more about his actions in the lead-up to the attack.
“Obviously, there will be a record of when the car was picked up, where it was picked up and what documentation was used to get the car in the first place. These are all lines of inquiry,” Kane said.
Friday night’s suspected attack comes eight years after a similar car ramming in the German capital of Berlin on December 19, 2016.
In that case, a Tunisian suspect, 24-year-old Anis Amri, intentionally drove a truck into a Christmas market in a major public square, Breitscheidplatz.
Twelve people were killed in that attack and as many as 56 were wounded. Amri was eventually killed in a shootout in Milan, after fleeing to Italy.
Raphael Bossong, a senior associate at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, speculated that the two incidents will likely be seen as related, though it is too early to speculate.
“ Unfortunately, this is a very sad anniversary, and I’m sure the perpetrator chose this thing for that purpose, to bring up this memory,” Bossong told Al Jazeera shortly after the news broke.
He added that Friday’s suspected attack is poised to have political repercussions in Germany, which is slated to hold federal elections in February 2025.
“We are entering an election period, and the German debate is already very polarised around these issues of migration,” Bossong explained. “I’m sure this will only add fuel to the fire, as sad as it is.”
In particular, security arrangements – both at the market and in the country as a whole – are likely to come under scrutiny.
“All Christmas markets and all these facilities in general now are supposed to be cordoned off against traffic, in the sense that since no car and no lorry could drive into them,” Bossong told Al Jazeera. “Probably the authorities will have to do some explaining.”
Already, the billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk – an increasingly prominent figure on the far right – has used the attack to call for Chancellor Scholz’s resignation.
“Scholz should resign immediately,” he wrote in a comment on his social media platform X. “Incompetent fool.”
Earlier in the day, Musk had announced he would back the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in Germany’s upcoming elections.
“Only the AfD can save Germany,” he posted, signalling his support.
Another far-right figure, MP Nigel Farage in the UK, also chimed in on social media. “We have allowed people who hate us and our values into Europe. Christmas is their target. Any guesses why?”
