A car plowed into a group of people shopping at a Christmas market in eastern Germany on Friday. leaving several people wounded in what officials are saying was a targeted attack.
A car barrelled through a Christmas market crowd in the eastern German city of Magdeburg today, leaving two dead and at least 60 to 80 people injured, in what regional authorities were treating as a suspected terror attack.
Reiner Haseloff, Saxony-Anhalt’s prime minister said two people were dead, including a small child, with almost 70 injured and 15 seriously wounded.
The car crashed through barriers protecting the market and drove straight into shoppers, eyewitnesses reported.
NTV television showed multiple ambulances and fire engines at the chaotic site with injured people being rushed off to hospitals and others being treated as they lay on the ground.
A police officer examines the crime scene at the Christmas market. Photo / Getty Images
Cries and screams could be heard as 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.
The driver has been arrested, Germany’s DPA news agency reported, and police closed the market as they searched for explosives. The suspect is reported to be a 50-year-old from Saudi Arabia who was working as a doctor at the Magdeburg Clinic, according to Bild newspaper.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has warned the death toll is likely to rise.
Emergency services, police and firefighters at the Christmas market in Magdeburg after a car was driven into a crowd, killing at least two, including a small child. Photo / Getty
“The reports from Magdeburg suggest something terrible is to come. 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,” he said in a statement.
Video purportedly taken by a nearby camera showed a car mowing down pedestrians as it sped through a narrow alleyway with stalls on either side.
Still from video shared online which purportedly shows a car ploughing into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg.
Between “60 and 80 people” were injured a spokesman for the local rescue service told AFP.
According to the emergency service, several people were “severely” injured", the spokesman said.
The attack began at 7.04pm Friday local time and the car involved was a dark-coloured BMW, according to reports.
A man, who watched the car speed by as he worked on a burger stand inside the market, told German newspaper Mitteldeutsche Zeitung that the scene had turned into “war-like conditions”.
Another eyewitness said lots of families had been in the “fairy tale area” of the market when the car slammed through the barriers. She said she just managed to jump out of its way with her child.
Magdeburg, west of Berlin, is the provincial capital of Saxony-Anholt and home to 240,000 people.
The city of Halle, about 80km from Magdeburg, was preparing its hospitals to take in the injured. It also stepped up security measures at its own Christmas market immediately after the attack.
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 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”.
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