Car Slams into Christmas Market in Germany, Killing 2 and Injuring Dozens

The Washington Post / Karla Adam, Souad Mekhennet, Mikhail Klimentov

16:18 JST, December 22, 2024

A driver plowed a car into a crowd at a Christmas market Friday evening in Magdeburg, Germany, killing at least two people, an adult and a child, and injuring nearly 70.

The suspected driver, a 50-year-old man from Saudi Arabia, was arrested on the scene. He arrived in Germany in 2006 and had worked as a doctor, local officials said.

Reiner Haseloff, the state premier of Saxony-Anhalt, told reporters that officials believed the man was a lone attacker and that there wasn’t “any further danger for the city.”

A German official with knowledge of the investigation into the suspect told The Washington Post that police were searching the man’s home, adding that there were suspicions he was under the influence of drugs at the time of the incident. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an open investigation, said the suspect was not known to authorities or previously suspected of extremism.

A second German official confirmed his name as Taleb al-Abdulmohsen and said he expressed anti-Islamic views and described himself as a dissident from Saudi Arabia.

According to the city’s count, 15 people were seriously hurt in the incident, while 37 people were moderately injured and 16 were lightly injured. Police closed off the area around the market after the incident.

The death toll is expected to rise, said the German official who spoke with The Post, citing the severity of some victims’ injuries.

“My thoughts are with the victims and their families,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in a post on the social media platform X.

“What terrible news from #Magdeburg,” Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck wrote on X, “where people wanted to spend the advent season in peace and community.”

The Saudi Arabian Foreign Ministry condemned the attack and expressed solidarity with the victims in a statement.

Magdeburg, with a population of 240,000, is about a two-hour drive west of Berlin. Christmas markets are a cornerstone of Germany’s holiday season, with decorative stalls selling mulled wine, handicrafts and treats.

While Christmas markets may have originated in Germany, they have spread across Europe to become a beloved holiday tradition that draws in huge crowds who like to linger in open-air settings and pedestrian thoroughfares. But the crowded, urban areas pose unique security issues.

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser recently called on people to be “very vigilant” at Christmas markets, although she said that there was no concrete evidence of an immediate threat.

Europe has been on high alert for attacks all year. Security officials worried about high-profile events like the Olympics, major soccer matches, Eurovision – any gathering drawing significant crowds. There were also arrests related to an alleged planned attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Germany. For most of the year, those large gatherings proceeded without incident.

Footage circulating on social media that has not been verified by The Post appears to show a vehicle being driven at high speed into a large group of people, supposedly in Magdeburg.

The incident recalled a 2016 attack when a man drove a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin. The attack, claimed by the Islamic State, killed 12 people on the scene. One more victim died later from serious injuries. Friday’s incident in Magdeburg comes one day after the eighth anniversary of the Berlin attack.

Security at Christmas markets has ramped up since the 2016 attack and another in 2018 on a Christmas market in Strasbourg, France, where a gunman killed five people and injured 11 others. Those attacks prompted some cities to implement security measures in public areas, including bollards able to withstand trucks up to 40 tons. It was unclear if this particular market in Magdeburg had any barriers.

Friday’s incident comes ahead of early elections in February, where migration and law and order are emerging as central issues. Some far-right politicians immediately blamed the attack on Germany’s decision to accept Syrian refugees in 2015, though the person arrested on the scene was not Syrian, and he arrived in Germany nearly a decade before then.

One lawmaker from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which is currently polling in second place, blamed the Christian Democratic Union of Germany for letting migrants into the country. In Britain, Nigel Farage, a far-right politician, wrote on social media: “We have allowed people who hate us and our values into Europe. Christmas is their target. Any guesses why?” His comments were reposted by Elon Musk.