A car crashed through a busy Christmas market in eastern Germany on Friday, killing at least two people and injuring over 60 more. According to a local official, the accused driver—a Saudi Arabian doctor who resided in Germany—was taken into custody.
There was no continuous danger to the public, and the suspect acted alone. Given the seriousness of some of the injuries, the official, Saxony-Anhalt Premier Reiner Haseloff, did not rule out more deaths.
One adult and one child are among the victims, according to Haseloff.
According to Saxony-Anhalt’s interior minister Tamara Zieschang, the 50-year-old suspect first arrived in Germany in 2006. According to Zieschang, he last practiced medicine at Bernburg, which is roughly 30 miles south of Magdeburg.
A vehicle was seen rushing past a sizable crowd of shoppers in a brief video of the incident that was geolocated to the eastern German city of Magdeburg and posted on X. While others rush to safety, several are run over. Before turning right out of the camera’s line of sight, the car sprints straight ahead.
A hotline was made available by the police for those impacted to call their family members. Due to “extensive police operations” in the area, they declared on X that the Magdeburg Christmas market was closed.
Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, forewarned of a challenging future.
Scholz wrote, “My thoughts are with the victims and their families,” in a message across X. “We support the Magdeburg community and stand by them. I want to express my gratitude to the hardworking rescuers during these stressful times.
Scholz is anticipated to visit the Magdeburg crime scene on Saturday, according to Haseloff.
In a post on X, Germany’s vice chancellor Robert Habeck bemoaned the event and called it “dreadful news.”
In addition to offering German officials sympathy and sympathies to the victims, their families, and the German people, the White House is keeping a careful eye on the events in Magdeburg, according to a White House official.
A vehicle crashed into a Berlin Christmas market in 2016, killing at least 12 people and injured dozens more in a disturbingly identical occurrence.
As a precaution and in reaction to the event in Germany, police in New York City have stepped up security at holiday markets, a senior NYPD official told NBC News on Friday.
More resources will be dispatched to various festive markets and prominent sites throughout the city. According to the official, there has been no specific local threat, although threats have been made to some markets outside.
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