Two died, dozens were injured in Magdeburg

Two people, including a child, were killed and dozens injured after a car plowed into a crowd at a Christmas market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg, officials said.

In a statement, the authorities said that 68 people were injured, 15 of them seriously.

Reiner Haseloff, the prime minister of the state of Saxony-Anhalt, told reporters at the scene that the suspect – who was arrested – is a 50-year-old Saudi citizen who arrived in Germany in 2006 and once worked as a doctor.

He said that the initial investigation revealed that the alleged attack was a lone wolf and he said that he would not say that there will be more deaths due to the number of injured people.

The suspect’s motive for the attack is unclear, and he is not known to be linked to Islam.

Pictures from the scene show several emergency vehicles attending people lying on the ground.

An unverified video on social media purports to show a car plowing through a crowd at a market.

A spokesman for the city of Magdeburg said all hospitals in the area were preparing for a “mass casualty event”, according to Reuters news agency.

City officials said about 100 firefighters and 50 rescue workers were at the scene.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said reports from Magdeburg “lead us to fear the worst”.

He added: “My thoughts are with the victims and their loved ones. We are on their side and on the side of all the citizens of Magdeburg. I thank all the emergency workers in these difficult hours.”

Scholz will visit the city on Saturday, Haseloff said.

At around 19:20 local time (18:20 GMT), the organizers of the Christmas market announced that it was closed as they were asked to “understand”.

After a while, they asked members of the public to avoid the market. We ask the emergency services to do their job and leave the market in an orderly manner,” they wrote on social media.

In an interview with the German Bild newspaper, Nadine explained that she was at the Christmas market with her boyfriend, Marco, when a car came running towards them.

“He was beaten and removed from my side,” said the 32-year-old man, telling this newspaper. “It was bad.”

Meanwhile, Lars Frohmüller, a reporter for German public broadcaster MDR, told BBC Radio 4’s World Tonight that he saw “blood on the floor” and “many doctors trying to keep people warm and help them with their injuries”.

When this incident happened, the Magdeburg football team was playing against Fortuna Dusseldorf.

After the end of the game, the players of this team united in front of their fans. A statement released by the club said “its thoughts are with those affected by the tragic events and the Magdeburg Christmas market”.

Meanwhile, there was a minute’s silence at the end of the match between Bayern and RB Leipzig in Munich.

Friday’s incident is not the first time people at a Christmas market have been attacked in Germany.

In 2016, Anis Amri, a Tunisian man who failed to obtain asylum in Germany and has links to the so-called Islamic State (IS), he drove a truck into the crowds gathered at a church market in Berlin12 died and 49 were injured.

Two years later, a gunman opened fire at a Christmas market in the eastern French city of Strasbourg, killing five and wounding 11 others. The gunman was shot dead by police two days later.

French President Emmanuel Macron said his country “shares the pain of the German people and expresses its full solidarity” following the Magdeburg incident.