At least five people were killed and 200 injured after a man drove a car into a busy Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, on Friday evening.
The number of casualties in the attack, which police say was deliberate, has shocked the European nation. Prosecutors said Saturday that a 9-year-old was among the fatalities, according to German news channel Deutsche Welle. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told reporters on Saturday that nearly 40 of the injured were seriously injured.
An eyewitness told the Associated Press that she saw a car driving into the market at high speed and heard people screaming. She said she saw a small child throw it in the air.
The suspected driver, who was arrested at the scene of the attack, is believed to have acted alone, Reiner Haseloff, premier of Saxony-Anhalt state, said on Friday. The suspect was driving a rental car, he added.
Authorities have identified the suspect as a 50-year-old doctor from Saudi Arabia who has lived in Germany for decades. A clinic in Bernburg, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Magdeburg, confirmed to NBC News that the suspect worked as a psychiatric specialist but had not worked since October due to “vacation and illness.”
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said on Saturday that the man was “clearly Islamophobic”, but police have not yet established a motive.
The Saudi Foreign Ministry condemned the attack in a statement that did not mention the suspect’s nationality. US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller wrote on X that the government is “shocked” by the attack.
Magdeburg, a city of approximately 240,000 inhabitants and the capital of Saxony-Anhalt, is located west of Berlin. The Christmas market, like those in cities across Germany, is an old holiday tradition that has caught on in other countries as well.
“There is no place more peaceful and joyful than a Christmas market,” Scholz told reporters on Saturday. “What a terrible act it is to injure and kill so many people there with such cruelty.”
Since the attack, cities across Germany have deployed extra security at their Christmas markets. Magdeburg police said the Christmas market is closed due to extensive police operations.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
