A bystander captured the dramatic moment when the German police arrested the suspect behind a deadly car attack at a Christmas market in Magdeburg on Friday.
The German police arrested a Saudi Arabian man after the car-ramming attack in which an SUV barrelled through a crowd of revellers at high speed, leaving a trail of bloody carnage.
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At least two persons were killed, one of them a young child, and 68 injured, said authorities in the city of Magdeburg, located about 130 kilometres southwest of Berlin.
Verified bystander footage distributed by the German news agency dpa showed the suspect’s arrest on a walkway in the middle of the road. A nearby police officer pointing a handgun at the man shouted at him as he lay prone. Other officers soon arrived to take the man into custody.
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15 people seriously injured
The two people confirmed dead were an adult and a toddler, but officials said additional deaths couldn’t be ruled out because 15 people had been seriously injured, news agency AFP reported.
The violence shocked the city, bringing its mayor to the verge of tears and marring a festive event that’s part of a centuries-old German tradition.
Who is the Germany Christmas attack suspect?
Tamara Zieschang, the interior minister for the state of Saxony-Anhalt, said at a news conference that the suspect is a 50-year-old Saudi doctor who moved to Germany in 2006. He has been practicing medicine in Bernburg, about 40 kilometres south of Magdeburg.
“As things stand, he is a lone perpetrator, so that as far as we know there is no further danger to the city,” Saxony-Anhalt’s governor, Reiner Haseloff, told reporters. “Every human life that has fallen victim to this attack is a terrible tragedy and one human life too many.”
Berlin attack
The violence occurred in Magdeburg, a city of about 240,000 people west of Berlin that serves as Saxony-Anhalt’s capital. Friday’s attack came eight years after an Islamic extremist drove a truck into crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing 13 people and injuring many others. The attacker was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.
Christmas markets are a huge part of German culture as an annual holiday tradition cherished since the Middle Ages and successfully exported to much of the Western world. In Berlin alone, more than 100 markets opened late last month and brought the smells of mulled wine, roasted almonds and bratwurst to the capital. Other markets abound across the country.
German interior minister Nancy Faeser said late last month that there were no concrete indications of a danger to Christmas markets this year, but that it was wise to be vigilant.
Hours after Friday’s tragedy, the wail of sirens clashed with the market’s festive ornaments, stars and leafy garlands.
Chancellor OIaf Scholz posted on X: “My thoughts are with the victims and their relatives. We stand beside them and beside the people of Magdeburg.”
Magdeburg Mayor Simone Borris, who was on the verge of tears, said officials plan to arrange a memorial at the city’s cathedral on Saturday.
After a soccer match Friday evening between Bayern Munich and Leipzig, Bayern CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen asked fans at the club’s stadium to observe a minute of silence.
(With inputs from agencies)