Who is suspected in the attack on the Magdeburg market? What we know so far

On Friday evening, a man crashed his car into a crowd of shoppers at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg.

The attack killed five people, including a nine-year-old boy, and injured more than 200, many of them in critical condition.

In relation to a 50-year-old man, detained on suspicion of committing an attack, the judge announced a measure of restraint in the form of remand.

Police believe he acted alone.

At 19:02 local time (18:02 GMT), the first call to emergency services was received.

The caller reported that a car had driven into a crowd at a downtown Christmas market.

Police said the caller thought it was an accident, but it soon turned out not to be the case.

According to police, the driver used a traffic signal to veer off the road into a crosswalk, driving him through the market’s emergency entry point, injuring several people along the way.

Unverified footage on social media shows the driver speeding along the footpath between the Christmas stalls.

Eyewitnesses describe how cars jumped out of the way, ran away or hid.

The police said that the driver then returned to the road the same way he was forced to stop in traffic. Officers were able to detain and arrest the driver at the market.

Footage shows armed police confronting and arresting a man lying on the ground next to a parked car – a black BMW with extensive damage to the front bumper and windscreen.

The entire incident was over in three minutes, police said.

A nine-year-old boy and four women aged 45, 52, 67 and 75 were confirmed dead in the attack.

More than 200 people were injured, at least 41 of them are in serious condition.

Earlier reports of two dead and 68 injured were reported, but on Saturday morning the number was revised to much higher.

None of the victims have been identified yet.

Local media reports identified the suspect as Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, according to the BBC.

He is a 50-year-old psychiatrist of Saudi origin who lives in Bernburg, about 40 km (25 miles) south of Magdeburg.

He is being held on suspicion of five murders, multiple attempted murders and grievous bodily harm, police said.

The motive for the attack remains unclear, but authorities have said they believe he carried out the attack alone.

Al-Abdulmohsen arrived in Germany in 2006 and was recognized as a refugee in 2016.

German Interior Minister Nancy Fesser told reporters that it was “obvious” that the suspect held “Islamophobic” views.

The suspect is an outspoken critic of Islam on social media and has promoted conspiracy theories about an alleged plot by German authorities to Islamize Europe.

Magdeburg police chief Tom-Oliver Langhans said police had previously assessed whether the suspect could pose a potential threat, “but that discussion was a year ago”.

One of these messages is believed to have come from the Saudi Arabian authorities.

A source close to the Saudi government told the BBC it had sent four official messages, known as “Notes Verbales”, to German authorities warning them of what they said were al-Abdulmohsen’s “very extreme views”.

However, a counter-terrorism expert told the BBC that the Saudis may have orchestrated a disinformation campaign to discredit the man who was trying to help young Saudi women seek asylum in Germany.

Holger Münch, head of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), told public broadcaster ZDF that his agency had received a message from Saudi Arabia in November 2023. He said that the local police have taken appropriate investigative measures, but the case is inconclusive.

He added that the suspect “had various contacts with superiors, insulted them and even threatened them, but he is not known for violent actions.”

“The reports from Magdeburg raise the worst fears,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on social media platform X.

Magdeburg’s councilor for public order, Ronny Krug, said the Christmas market would remain closed and that “Christmas is over in Magdeburg,” according to German public broadcaster MDR.

Those sentiments were echoed on the market’s website, which after the attack showed only a black screen with words of mourning, announcing that the market had ended.

The Saudi government expressed “solidarity with the German people and the families of the victims” in a statement on X and “reaffirmed its rejection of violence.”

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he was “appalled by the brutal attack in Magdeburg”, adding that his thoughts were with “the victims, their families and all those affected” in a message on X on Friday night.