Terrorist Attack At Magdeburg Christmas Fair: Car Driver Identified

• 21.12.2024, 11:46

The death toll has risen.

On the evening of December 20, a car crashed into a crowd of people at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg. Immediately after the incident, one person was reported dead, but the death toll has risen. More information has also become known about the driver's identity.

The incident occurred on the evening of December 20. Judging by the video published on social networks, the car drove into a crowd of people who came to the Christmas market on Friday evening. According to information from the police, at least one person died as a result, and the Magdeburg rescue service named the number of casualties as between 60 and 80 people.

By the morning of December 21, it became known that at least two people were killed. The Prime Minister of the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt, Rainer Haseloff, clarified that one of them was a small child. According to updated data, 68 people were injured, 15 of whom were seriously injured.

“This is a disaster for Magdeburg, for the state and for Germany as a whole,” Haseloff said, adding that the death toll could rise given the severity of some of the injuries.

The driver who ran over the vehicle was quickly detained. He is a 50-year-old Saudi Arabian who has lived in Germany since 2006 and has a permanent residence permit in the country. It is noted that the driver also has refugee status and is a psychiatrist by profession.

The Spiegel publication described the detainee as “a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy who sympathized with the far-right German party Alternative for Germany.” However, the source of the information was not indicated.

According to Haseloff, this is “a lone criminal, which means that the city is no longer in danger.” However, the motive of the driver who ran over the vehicle is still unclear. According to local television station MDR, the detainee was not known to German authorities as an Islamist.