“Death toll rises to 5 after car crashes into Christmas market in Germany Five people are dead and more than 200 injured after a car plowed into a crowd in Magdeburg. The suspect is a 50-year-old doctor from Saudi Arabia, a critic of Islam, who has been living in Germany since 2006.”, — write on: unn.ua
Details
Many people were seriously injured, Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt Rainer Haseloff told reporters on Saturday. German media reported 41 seriously injured.
Hazeloff told reporters on Friday that the arrested suspect is a 50-year-old Saudi citizen who arrived in Germany in 2006 and worked as a doctor.
He said a preliminary investigation showed the alleged attacker was acting as a “lone wolf”. He cannot rule out more victims due to the large number of wounded.
The alleged attacker’s motives are unclear and he has no known links to Islamic extremism – social media and online reports appear to indicate he criticized Islam.
German media identified the suspect as Taleb A., a psychiatrist who lives in Bernburg, about 40 km south of Magdeburg. Originally from Saudi Arabia, he arrived in Germany in 2006 and was recognized as a refugee in 2016.
He ran a website that aimed to help other ex-Muslims avoid persecution in their homeland in the Persian Gulf.
According to social media reports, the suspect is an ardent critic of Islam and promotes conspiracy theories about a conspiracy to establish Islamic rule in Europe.
The attack on the Christmas market in Magdeburg killed 4 people: what is known about the suspectDecember 21 2024, 09:55 • 7224 views
As recently as last month, German Interior Minister Nancy Feser spoke of the need for “greater vigilance” at the very popular fairs, but said there were no “concrete” signs of danger.
She also reportedly pointed to tougher gun laws in public after a knife attack in Solingen, western Germany, in August that left three people dead, an incident that reignited an already tense debate over asylum and migration in Germany.
Addition
Friday’s incident is not the first case of an attack on people at a Christmas market in Germany.
In 2016, Anis Amri, a Tunisian denied asylum in Germany and linked to the so-called Islamic State (IS) group, drove a truck into a crowd at a church fair in Berlin, causing 12 people died and 49 people were injured.
Two years later, a gunman opened fire at a Christmas market in the eastern French city of Strasbourg, killing five and injuring 11 others. The gunman was shot dead by police two days later.