German authorities are investigating a Saudi man with a history of anti-Islam rhetoric as the suspected driver in a car-ramming attack at a Christmas market in the city of Magdeburg which killed five people, officials said on Saturday.
The Friday evening attack on crowds of market visitors gathered to celebrate the pre-Christmas season comes amid a fierce debate over security and migration during an election campaign in Germany, where the far-right is polling strongly, according to Reuters.“
What a terrible act it is to injure and kill so many people there with such brutality,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in the central city, part of the former East Germany, where he laid a white rose at a church in honour of the victims.
“We have now learned that over 200 people have been injured,” he added.” Almost 40 are so seriously injured that we must be very worried about them.”
A 50-year-old Saudi doctor who has lived in Germany for almost two decades was arrested at the scene. Police searched his home overnight.
