German police search for motive in deadly Christmas market attack

Germans mourned a violent attack and their shaken sense of security after an SUV ploughed through a Christmas market in the city of Magdeburg on Friday night, in a deadly car-ramming that evoked painful memories of past attacks on a centuries-old tradition.

Reiner Haseloff, the governor of Saxony-Anhalt, said Saturday the death toll had risen to five, with more than 200 others injured, many of them seriously.

Authorities arrested a 50-year-old Saudi man at the site of the attack and took him into custody for questioning. Officials said he had lived in Germany for nearly two decades, practising medicine.

German media outlets identified the man as Taleb A., withholding his last name in line with privacy laws, and reported that he was a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy.

There were still no answers Saturday as to what caused him to drive into a crowd in the central German city famed for its Christmas market.

Addressing reporters in Magdeburg, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said she did not want to speculate about the motive, adding that "the one thing" she could confirm was that the suspect had expressed an "Islamophobic" stance.

German media said the suspect described himself as a former Muslim and shared dozens of tweets and retweets daily focusing on anti-Islam themes, criticising the religion and congratulating Muslims who left the faith.

He also accused German authorities of failing to do enough to combat what he said was the “Islamism of Europe". Some described him as an activist who helped Saudi women flee their homeland. He has also voiced support for the far-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

Recently, he seemed focused on his theory that German authorities have been targeting Saudi asylum seekers.

Prominent German terrorism expert Peter Neumann said he had yet to come across a suspect in an act of mass violence with that profile.

“After 25 years in this ‘business’ you think nothing could surprise you anymore. But a 50-year-old Saudi ex-Muslim who lives in East Germany, loves the AfD and wants to punish Germany for its tolerance towards Islamists – that really wasn’t on my radar," Neumann, the director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence at King’s College London, wrote on X.

History of attacks

The violence shocked Germany and the city, bringing its mayor to the verge of tears and marring a festive event that is part of a centuries-old German tradition. It prompted several other German towns to cancel their weekend Christmas markets as a precaution and out of solidarity with Magdeburg’s loss.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz travelled to Magdeburg on Saturday, and a memorial service was to take place in the city cathedral in the evening.

Addressing reporters, Scholz spoke of a "terrible catastrophe". He said some 40 of the wounded "are so seriously injured we must be very worried about them".

Germany has suffered a string of extremist attacks in recent years, including an attack in which a man with a knife killed three people and seriously wounded others at a festival in the western city of Solingen in August.

Friday’s attack came eight years after an Islamic extremist drove a truck into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing 13 people and injuring many others. The attacker was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.

The Magdeburg attack comes at a time of heightened debate over migration and security in Germany, which is gearing up for a snap election on February 23.

The AfD, currently polling in second place behind the conservative opposition, has led calls for a crackdown on migration to the country.

AfD chancellor candidate Alice Weidel condemned the attack and said on X, "The pictures from #Magdeburg are shocking! My thoughts are with the bereaved and injured. When will this madness come to an end?"

(FRANCE 24 with AP)