A man is accused of driving a car into a crowd of people at a German Christmas market, killing five people more than 200 injuredwas jailed on multiple charges of murder and attempted murder.
The Magdeburg police announced on Sunday that an arrest warrant had been issued against the man for five counts of murder as well as several counts of attempted murder and serious bodily harm.
Those killed were a nine-year-old boy and four women aged 52, 45, 75 and 67, the police statement said. Among the wounded, around 40 suffered serious or life-threatening injuries.
Authorities reported that the suspected attacker used emergency exits to get into the Christmas market grounds, where he accelerated, drove into the crowd and struck more than 200 people in a three-minute rampage. He was arrested at the scene.
Simmering tensions
The attack on Friday evening in the city center of Magdeburg shocked Germany and once again triggered simmering tensions around the issue of migration.
The suspect, named as Taleb A, is a 50-year-old psychiatrist from Saudi Arabia with a history of Islamophobic rhetoric who has lived in Germany for almost two decades.
The motive for the attack remains unclear, but Magdeburg prosecutor Horst Nopens said Saturday that a possible factor could be the suspect’s frustration with Germany’s treatment of Saudi refugees.
The suspected attacker had made online death threats against German citizens and had disputes with state authorities in the past, prompting German media to question whether the government could have done more to prevent the attack.
News magazine Der Spiegel, citing security sources, said Saudi intelligence warned Germany’s BND intelligence service a year ago about a tweet in which Taleb threatened that Germany would pay a “price” for its treatment of Saudi refugees.
And in August he wrote on social media: “Is there a path to justice in Germany without blowing up a German embassy or indiscriminately slaughtering German citizens? … If anyone knows, please let me know.”
Daily newspaper Die Welt reported, citing security sources, that German state and federal police conducted a “risk assessment” of Taleb last year but concluded he posed “no concrete danger.”
Encouragement of the extreme right
At a right-wing extremist demonstration in Magdeburg on Saturday evening, in which around 2,100 people took part, the police reported scuffles and “minor unrest”.
Demonstrators, some wearing black balaclavas, held a large banner reading “Remigration,” a term used by far-right supporters who advocate for the mass deportation of immigrants and people not considered ethnically German.
The incident occurred before a crucial choice in Germany on February 23, sparking sharp criticism from far-right and far-left parties opposed to Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government.
AfD parliamentary group leader Bernd Baumann called on Scholz to call a special session of the Bundestag on the “desolate” security situation, arguing: “That is the least we owe the victims.”
Meanwhile, the leader of the left-wing extremist Sahra-Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), Sahra Wagenknecht, called on Interior Minister Nancy Faeser to explain “why so many tips and warnings were ignored in advance.”
Scholz condemned the “terrible, insane” attack and called for national unity.
In the past, the suspect had spoken out on the social media platform X for both the AfD and the US billionaire Elon Musk, who supports the AfD. The party has a strong support base in the former GDR, where Magdeburg is located. Its members, including Chancellor candidate Alice Weidel, planned a rally in Magdeburg for Monday evening.
