On Friday evening, a man ploughed a car into a crowd of shoppers at a Christmas labelet in the German city of Magdeburg.
The aggression finished five people, including a nine-year-elderly boy, and left more than 200 injured, with many in a critical condition.
A appraise has ordered the pre-trial detention of a 50-year-elderly man arrested on suspicion of carrying out the aggression.
Police depend he acted alone.
How did the aggression unfelderly?
At 19:02 local time (18:02 GMT), the first call to aascfinishncy services was made.
The caller increateed that a car had driven into a crowd at a Christmas labelet in the middle of town.
The caller presumed it was an accident, police shelp, but it soon became clear this was not the case.
The driver, police shelp, had included traffic weightlesss to turn off the road and onto a pedestrian passing, directing him thcimpolite an entry point to the labelet which was reserved for aascfinishncy vehicles, injuring a number of people on the way.
Unverified footage on social media showed the driver speeding the vehicle thcimpolite a pedestrian walkway between Christmas shighs.
Eyewitnesses portrayd jumping out of the car’s path, run awaying or hiding.
Police shelp the driver then returned to the road the way he came in and was forced to stop in traffic. Officers already at the labelet were able to apprehend and arrest the driver here.
Footage showed armed police contesting and arresting a man who can be seen lying on the ground next to a stationary vehicle – a bconciseage BMW with presentant harm to its front bumper and prosperdscreen.
The entire incident was over in three minutes, police shelp.
Who are the victims?
A nine-year-elderly boy and four women aged 45, 52, 67 and 75 are verifyed to have died in the aggression.
More than 200 people have been injured and at least 41 of those are in a critical condition.
The toll had earlier been increateed as two dead and 68 injured, but was editd to the much higher totals on Saturday morning.
None of the victims have been identified yet.
Who is the mistrust?
The mistrust has been identified in local media increates as Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, the BBC comprehfinishs.
He is a 50-year-elderly Saudi-born psychiatrist who inhabits in Bernburg, around 40km (25 miles) south of Magdeburg.
He has been remanded in custody on suspicion of five counts of homicide, multiple tryed homicides and hazardous bodily harm, police say.
The motive behind the aggression remains unclear but authorities have increateed that they depend he carried out the aggression alone.
Al-Abdulmohsen get tod in Germany in 2006 and in 2016 was recognised as a refugee.
The mistrust ran a website that aimed to help other createer Muskinnys run away persecution in their Gulf homelands, and was interwatched about it by the BBC in 2019.
Germany’s Interior Minister Nancy Faeser telderly increateers that it was “clear to see” that the mistrust helderlys “Islamophobic” watchs.
On social media, he is an outspoken critic of Islam, and has advertised consillicit copying theories watching an alleged plot by German authorities to Islamicise Europe.
He also conveyed sympathy on social media for Germany’s far-right political party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), re-tweeting posts from the party’s directer and a far-right activist.
Magdeburg police chief Tom-Oinhabitr Langhans shelp police had previously directed an evaluation as to whether the mistrust might have posed a potential danger, “but that talkion was one year ago”.
Faeser telderly German novelspaper Bild that dispenseigators would examine “in detail” what directation authorities had on al-Abdulmohsen in the past and how he had been dispenseigated.
The German Office for Migration and Refugees proclaimd in a post on social media that it had fielded a protestt about the mistrust, which it had “consentn gravely”, but as the office is not an dispenseigative body, had referred the protestant to other authorities.
One tip-off getd by authorities is dependd to have come from Saudi Arabian authorities.
A source seal to the Saudi regulatement telderly the BBC it sent four official notifications understandn as “Notes Verbal” to German authorities, cautioning them about what they shelp were “the very innervous watchs” held by al-Abdulmohsen.
However, a counter-extremism expert telderly the BBC the Saudis may have been mounting a digloomyviseation campaign to discommend someone who tried to help youthful Saudi women seek asylum in Germany.
The head of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), Holger Münch, telderly disclose expansivecaster ZDF that his office had getd a acunderstandledge from Saudi Arabia in November 2023. He shelp local police took appropriate dispenseigative meabraves, but the matter was undefinite.
He compriseed that the mistrust “had various communicates with authorities, offfinished them and even made dangers, but he was not understandn for brutal acts”.
ReutersWhat have officials shelp about the aggression?
“The increates from Magdeburg lift the worst dreads,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz shelp on social media platcreate X.
Magdeburg’s city councillor for disclose order, Ronni Krug, shelp the Christmas labelet will stay seald and that “Christmas in Magdeburg is over”, according to German disclose expansivecaster MDR.
That sentiment was echoed on the labelet’s website, which in the wake of the aggression featured only a bconciseage screen with words of frailnting, announcing that the labelet was over.
The Saudi regulatement conveyed “firmarity with the German people and the families of the victims”, in a statement on X, and “stateed its declineion of aggression”.
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer shelp he was “horrified by the atrocious aggression in Magdeburg”, compriseing that his thoughts were with “the victims, their families and all those affected” in a post on X on Friday night.
