At least five people have been killed, and 200 injured, after a car plowed into a busy outdoor Christmas market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg on Friday in what authorities called a deliberate attack. Four women and a 9-year-old boy were killed and 200 people were injured when a man drove into a Christmas market teeming with holiday shoppers in the German city of Magdeburg — an attack that has left Germans mourning the victims and with a shaken sense of security. How did the attack unfold? At first, Thi Linh Chi Nguyen thought the loud bangs were fireworks. The 34-year-old manicurist from Vietnam, whose salon is near the Christmas market, was on the phone during a break when she heard the noise just after 7 p.m. on Friday. Then she saw a car drive through the market at high speed. People screamed and a child was thrown into the air by the car. (…) Police say the dead are four women, aged 45, 52, 67 and 75, and a boy, aged 9. He was named as André Gleissner by fire department officials in the Elm-Asse region west of Magdeburg, where he was a member of the children’s fire brigade. Authorities said 200 people were injured, including 41 in serious condition. They were being treated in multiple hospitals in Magdeburg, which is about 130 kilometers (80 miles) west of Berlin, and beyond. Who is the suspect in the attack? Prosecutors said the suspect, a 50-year-old Saudi doctor, is under investigation on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and bodily harm. In a closed-door hearing on Saturday evening, a judge ordered that he be kept in custody pending a possible indictment. (…) Prosecutors said the motive may have been “dissatisfaction with the treatment of Saudi refugees in Germany.” Intelligence agencies say that increasingly they are seeing attackers with a confusing mix of beliefs and motivations. The head of Britain’s domestic intelligence agency MI5, Ken McCallum, said in October that “straightforward labels like ‘Islamist terrorism’ or ‘extreme right-wing’ don’t fully reflect the dizzying range of beliefs and ideologies we see.”
via ap: What we know about the deadly Christmas market attack in Germany
siehe auch: Saudi doctor who plowed through Christmas market peddled anti-German, anti-Islam rhetoric for years. Saudi Arabia warned Germany three times about the Saudi doctor who allegedly killed five and injured more than 200 when he plowed through a busy Christmas market — and repeatedly promised he would die justice in the “Islamic war waged by Germany” months before carrying out Friday’s terror attack. The first warning came in 2007, just one year after psychologist Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, 50, fled to the European country, sources told CNN. The alleged terrorist had a history of expressing radical views of varying kinds. Saudi Arabia considers him a fugitive and had requested his extradition between 2007 and 2008 — but German authorities refused over concerns for al-Abdulmohsen’s safety upon his return. In spite of this, al-Abdulmohsen spewed anti-German and anti-Muslim rhetoric on social media for years and urged fellow asylum seekers to avoid living in Germany. “The corrupt organization @atheistrefugees is part of the leftist agenda to hijack and poison any anti-islamic activism,” al-Abdulmohsen posted on X in May, referring to a group that says it aims to help “atheist and secular refugees.” “Since January 2019, we have reported to the German police dozens of times with conclusive evidence. But the whole organization is a product of the corrupt German authorities.. so I consider it an Islamic war waged by Germany against the irreligious Saudis,” he wrote; Magdeburg Christmas market attack: authorities received warnings about suspect German government to investigate whether more could have been done to prevent car-ramming that killed five. The German government has vowed to investigate whether a Christmas market car attack that killed five people and injured 200 could have been prevented after it emerged that authorities had received multiple warnings about the suspect. Amid mounting criticism of Germany’s security apparatus, the interior minister, Nancy Faeser, said on Sunday the heads of the domestic and foreign intelligence services would be questioned by two parliamentary committees next week The man arrested at the scene of Friday’s attack in Magdeburg, a Saudi-born psychiatrist named by German media as Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, 50, had made online threats to kill German citizens and had a history of disputes with state authorities. A self-described “Saudi atheist” who helped women flee Gulf countries, he had also been strongly critical of Berlin for allowing in too many Muslim refugees and had repeatedly backed far-right conspiracy theories about the “Islamisation” of Europe. Abdulmohsen voiced support on social media platform X for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party and for X’s owner, the US billionaire Elon Musk, who has publicly backed AfD, saying only the anti-immigration party “can save Germany”.
