Four adults and a nine-year-old child have been killed in a horrifying attack on a Christmas market in Germany.
Officials confirmed that at least five people have died after a car rammed into a massive crowd of shoppers at a Christmas market in Magdeburg at around 7pm on December 20 with a dark BMW.
At least 205 people have also been injured during the massacre, while the suspect, a 50-year-old Saudi doctor, has also been arrested.
Prosecutor Horst Nopens said he is under investigation on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and bodily harm. He is currently being questioned.
Several German media outlets identified the suspect as Taleb A., withholding his last name in line with privacy laws, and reported that he was a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy.
He has lived in Germany since 2006, practicing medicine in Bernburg, about 25 miles south of Magdeburg, officials said.
The country has been in mourning following Friday’s attack, with locals placing candles and tributes at the site where the car drove into a crowd.
The motive of the attack remains unclear at this stage, although officials said the suspect’s anger over the treatment of Saudi Arabian refugees in Germany may have been a factor.
Officials told a press conference on Saturday that 205 people were injured in the attack, 41 of which have been hurt badly.
City official Ronni Krug said he didn’t have further information on the adults who were killed.
The suspect is currently being interviewed by police and it is believed he was working alone, he added.
Neurosurgeon Mahmoud Elenbaby said some 80 patients were brought to Magdeburg’s university hospital on Friday night.
Mourners lit candles and placed flowers outside a church near the market on the cold and gloomy day. Several people stopped and cried.
A Berlin church choir whose members witnessed a previous Christmas market attack in 2016 sang Amazing Grace, a hymn about God’s mercy, offering their prayers and solidarity with the victims.
Describing himself as a former Muslim, the suspect shared dozens of tweets and retweets daily focusing on anti-Islam themes, criticizing the religion and congratulating Muslims who left the faith.
He also accused German authorities of failing to do enough to combat what he said was the ‘Islamism of Europe.’
The violence shocked Germany and the city, bringing its mayor to the verge of tears and marring a festive event that’s part of a centuries-old German tradition.
It prompted several other German towns to cancel their weekend Christmas markets as a precaution and out of solidarity with Magdeburg’s loss.