A car barrelled through a Christmas market crowd in the eastern German city of Magdeburg on Friday, leaving 60 to 80 people injured in chaotic scenes that authorities are treating as a suspected attack.
German media reported that multiple people were killed, but this was not immediately confirmed by authorities.
Police made one arrest after the vehicle drove “at least 400 metres across the Christmas market”, leaving behind a trail of bloodied casualties at the city’s central town hall square.
NTV television showed ambulances and fire engines at the chaotic site, which was doused in blue light with sirens wailing, as badly injured people were being rushed off to hospitals and others were treated as they lay on the ground.
Cries and screams could be heard as dozens of police, medics and the fire service deployed to the litter-strewn market decorated with Christmas trees and festive lights.
“We presume it was an attack,” a spokeswoman for the interior ministry of Saxony-Anhalt state told AFP.
News weekly Der Spiegel, citing security sources, said that a black BMW had barrelled through the crowd at high speed just after 7:00 pm local time (1800 GMT) when the market was filled with revellers.
“The pictures are terrible,” said city spokesman Michael Reif.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz wrote on X that “the reports from Magdeburg raise the worst fears”.
“My thoughts are with the victims and their families. We stand by their side and by the side of the people of Magdeburg. My thanks go to the dedicated rescue workers in these anxious hours.”
The bloody carnage recalled a 2016 jihadist attack in which a Tunisian man driving a lorry killed 12 people in a Christmas market in Berlin.
A 13th victim died later having suffered serious injuries in the assault, claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has recently called on people to be vigilant at Christmas markets, although she said that authorities had not received any specific threats.
Domestic security service the Office for the Protection of the Constitution had warned it considers Christmas markets to be an “ideologically suitable target for Islamist-motivated people”.
Germany has in recent times seen a series of suspected Islamist-motivated knife attacks.
Three people were killed and eight wounded in a stabbing spree at a street festival in the western city of Solingen in August.
Police arrested a Syrian suspect over the attack that was claimed by IS.
In June, a policeman was killed in a knife attack in Mannheim, with an Afghan national held as the main suspect.
AFP
