At least four people were killed, one of them a young child, and at least 200 people were injured, amongst them 41 heavily injured, when a man drove a car into a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, on Friday evening. CCTV footage shows the moment and the aftermaths of the attack, showing a black car driving into the crowd at full speed and people fleeing in panic while many are left injured on the ground.
The suspect, Taleb A., was identified as a 50-year-old Saudi Arabian doctor who has been living in Germany since 2006. Reports indicate that Taleb is wanted by Saudi authorities on charges of terrorism and smuggling girls from the Middle East to European Union countries. Germany had granted him political asylum in 2016.
While a clear motive remains unknown, A.’s social media account shows that he was anti-Islam and a sympathizer of the far-right AfD (Alternative for Germany) Party and accused German society of facilitating the spread of Islam. In several posts on his X account, Taleb A. had declared his intentions to “slaughter German people” and had recently also said that former German chancellor Angela Merkel “deserves to be killed”. Despite these posts, German security forces state that the man had no criminal record.
Taleb A. was arrested, and multiple house raids have been conducted by German police in the city of Bernburg, which lies 50 kilometres from Magdeburg, where the suspect had lived.
