At least five people were killed in a car-ramming attack at a German Christmas market in Magdeburg, which injured more than 200 people, according to officials.
A Saudi man was arrested on suspicion of driving into the crowd.
The Friday evening attack on market goers gathered to celebrate the pre-Christmas season comes amid a heated discussion over security and migration during Germany’s election campaign, in which the extreme right is leading.
The attack on market participants who had gathered to celebrate the pre-Christmas season on Friday night coincides with a contentious debate over migration and security during Germany’s election campaign, which is being led by the extreme right.
German authorities are investigating a 50-year-old Saudi doctor who has lived in Germany for almost two decades in connection with the car-ramming. Police searched his home overnight.
The motive remained unclear, and police had not yet named the suspect. He has been named in German media as Taleb A.
A Saudi source said that Saudi Arabia had warned German authorities about the attacker after he posted extremist views on his personal X account that threatened peace and security. Reports said.
Scholz’s Social Democrats are trailing both the far-right AfD and the frontrunner conservative opposition in opinion polls ahead of snap elections set for Feb. 23.
The AfD, which enjoys particularly strong support in the former East, has led calls for a crackdown on migration to the country.
Its chancellor candidate Alice Weidel and co-leader Tino Chrupalla issued a statement on Saturday condemning the attack.
“The terrible attack on the Christmas market in Magdeburg in the middle of the peaceful pre-Christmas period has shaken us,” they said.
A leading Social Democrat lawmaker in the Bundestag parliament warned against jumping to conclusions and said it appeared the attacker did not have an Islamist motive.
