Advertisement
Supported by
At least five people, including a 9-year-old child, were killed in the attack, which took place in the eastern city of Magdeburg. The authorities are still seeking a motive.
By Christopher F. Schuetze and Melissa Eddy
Christopher F. Schuetze reported from the closed market in central Magdeburg, Germany, where the attack took place. Melissa Eddy reported from Berlin.
It took just three minutes for an attacker to kill five other people and injure many when he crashed into an SUV at a busy Christmas market on Friday night, shocking Germany and shattering the peace of its holiday season.
Around 7 p. m. on Friday, the market in the eastern city of Magdeburg was filled with families and friends gathered under the glow of twinkling lights to celebrate the last day of paintings before the week-long holiday.
Instead, the weekend began with horror. The attacker, described by officials as a 50-year-old Saudi doctor who had been living in Germany for nearly two decades, slowly maneuvered a rented car through a gap in the security barriers designed for emergency vehicles, then steered for the heart of the celebration at the old market square.
He accelerated, trying to hurt as many people as possible, the police said.
After maiming many people, he tried to escape through a hole at the other end of the square, but was stopped in traffic. Officers temporarily surrounded the vehicle, forcing the driver to the ground while they detained him.
Among the five affected was a 9-year-old child and 4 adults. More than two hundred more people were injured, 41 of them with injuries so serious that the government warned the death toll could rise in the coming days. injuries that some had to be airlifted to hospitals in other states.
Magdeburg’s local government, speaking at a news conference at City Hall on Saturday, called the attacker only as Taleb A. , in accordance with German data protection law, and said his motive is being investigated.
We are having trouble retrieving the article content.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
Already a subscriber? Log in.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Advertisement