At least two people including a child have been killed after a car sped 400m straight through a crowded Christmas market in eastern Germany.
As many as 68 visitors have reportedly been injured in the crammed ‘Fairy Tale’ section of the Magdeburg market on Friday at 7.04pm. The driver was arrested at the scene.
Premier of the state of Saxony Anhalt Reiner Haseloff, told n-tv television one of those who died was a small child.
Follow our live coverage of the tragedy here.
Saxony-Anhalt’s interior minister, Tamara Zieschang, told reporters that the suspect is a 50-year-old Saudi doctor who first came to Germany in 2006. “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, said at a news conference.
He was not known to German authorities as an Islamic extremist, the dpa agency reported, citing unidentified security officials.
An eyewitness told the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung that the car “drove into the ‘Fairy Tale’ area of the Magdeburg Christmas market” full of families at the time.
She and her child were able to jump out of the car’s path as it sped through.
A stallholder said that the driver raced directly past his burger stand describing the aftermath as “war-like”.
A police spokesman told Bild it’s still unclear whether the attack was carried out by a lone perpetrator.
The car, described as a dark BMW by witnesses, drove “at least 400 metres” through the Christmas market sending people flying into the air before coming to halt.
The driver could be seen being arrested.
Shocking CCTV footage shows the moment a dark car speeds through the densely packed marketplace sending bodies flying into the air.
City spokesperson Michael Reif said he suspected it was a deliberate act.
