Germans mourn five dead, 200 injured in Christmas market attack | Crime News

A memorial service took place in the cathedral of Magdeburg, a city rocked by the murder.

Germans gathered in Magdeburg to mourn the victims of a car attack in the eastern city that killed at least five people and injured 200.

Authorities said a doctor rammed into a busy Christmas market on Friday evening, killing four adults and a nine-year-old child, and injuring 41 people so badly that the death toll could rise.

Church bells rang in the city at 7:04pm (18:04 GMT) on Saturday, the exact time of the attack the evening before.

The memorial service took place in the city’s chapel, intended mainly for relatives of the dead, as well as emergency workers and invited guests, including German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Those who are not allowed to go to the service gather outside the church to watch it on the big screen.

Several hundred people also gathered in the central square, some laying flowers and lighting candles.

The crowds included those holding banners with far-right slogans.

The violence shocked the German city of about 240,000 people 130km (80 miles) west of Berlin.

It led many other places in Germany to cancel their Christmas markets over the weekend as a precautionary measure and in solidarity with the loss of Magdeburg.

Berlin kept most of its markets open but increased the police presence in them.

An investigation into the cause

The suspect is a 50-year-old immigrant from Saudi Arabia who described himself as an activist who criticizes Islam and who surrendered to the police at the scene.

The suspect is being investigated for five alleged murders and 205 alleged attempted murders, said prosecutor Horst Walter Nopens in a press conference.

Investigators are looking into whether the attack was a result of the doctor’s dissatisfaction with Germany’s treatment of Saudi refugees, Nopens said.

Police have not released the suspect’s name, but several German media outlets identified him as Taleb A and reported that he was a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy.

Posts on the suspect’s X account, confirmed by the Reuters news agency, suggested he supported anti-Islam and far-right groups, including Alternative for Germany.

A Saudi source told the agency that Saudi Arabia warned German authorities about the suspect after he posted “extremist” comments on his X account that threatened peace and security.

A risk assessment carried out last year by German federal and state criminal investigators concluded that the man was “not particularly dangerous,” the Welt newspaper reported, citing security sources.

Germany has suffered a number of attacks in recent years, including a knife attack that killed three people and injured eight at a festival in the western city of Solingen in August.

Friday’s attack also came eight years after a man drove a truck into a busy Christmas market in Berlin, killing 13 people and injuring dozens. The attacker was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.