Saudi doc arrested in Germany car attack
MAGDEBURG, GERMANY—German police arrested a Saudi Arabian doctor after a deadly car ramming attack on a Christmas market Friday in which a vehicle barreled through a crowd of revelers at high speed, leaving a trail of bloody carnage.
At least two people were killed and more than 60 injured, said rescue services in the eastern city of Magdeburg.
A Saudi source said the kingdom had warned German authorities about the attacker, whom the source said had posted extremist views on his personal X account.
The source identified the suspect as Taleb Abdul Jawad. Germany’s Der Spiegel identified the attacker as Taleb A., a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy.
The 50-year-old medical doctor from Saudi Arabia had been living in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, said regional premier Reiner Haseloff, speaking at the scene which was cordoned off and guarded by police commandos.
A video posted on social media from a position above the market shows a car driving at speed through a crowd walking between two rows of market stalls. People can be seen knocked to the ground and running away.
Reuters was able to verify the location, with the trees, outline and design of the buildings matching file and satellite imagery of the area.
“We have arrested the perpetrator, a man from Saudi Arabia, a doctor who has been in Germany since 2006,” Haseloff told reporters, calling the attack a “catastrophe” for the city and the country.
‘Lone’ wolf
“From what we currently know he was a lone attacker so we don’t think there is any further danger.”
Police said the vehicle drove “at least 400 meters across the Christmas market” leaving behind a trail of bloodied casualties at the city’s central town hall square.
Ambulances and fire engines rushed to the chaotic site, where badly injured people were being treated on the ground or rushed off to hospitals.
Cries and screams could be heard as around 100 police, medics and the fire service officers deployed to the litter-strewn market decorated with Christmas trees and festive lights.
“The pictures are terrible,” said city spokesman Michael Reif.
News weekly Der Spiegel, citing security sources, said that a black BMW had barreled through the crowd at high speed just after 7:00 pm local time when the market was filled with revelers.
Haseloff said the Saudi man had driven a rented car with Munich license plates into the Christmas market.
Die Welt daily reported that a piece of luggage on the passenger seat was suspected of being an explosive device but was found harmless.
The Magdeburg city administration said in a Facebook post that 15 people were critically injured, with 37 people suffering serious injuries and 16 sustaining light injuries.
Previous incidents
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz wrote on X that “the reports from Magdeburg raise the worst fears”.
The bloody carnage recalled a 2016 jihadist attack in which a Tunisian man driving a lorry killed 12 people in a Christmas market in Berlin, the country’s worst ever such 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 that 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.”
