German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was heckled, booed and called a ‘murderer’ by a crowd gathered at the scene of a horrifying Christmas market attack that left five dead and hundreds injured on Friday night.
A black BMW rammed into a huge crowd of shoppers at a Christmas market in Magdeburg at around 7pm yesterday, as officials say four adults and a nine-year-old child were killed. A further 205 people were injured during the massacre.
Police arrested a 50-year-old Saudi doctor identified as Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, who continues to be under investigation on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and bodily harm.
But today there was visible hostility towards the Government as questions remain over whether the authorities ‘ignored’ warnings in advance of the fatal attack, including that police had considered putting al-Abdulmohsen on a ‘dangerous persons’ list previously.
On Saturday morning, Chancellor Scholz arrived to pay his respects at the market, where he described last night’s event as a ‘terrible, insane act’.
He said: ‘What a terrible act it is to injure and kill so many people there with such brutality.
‘We have now learned that there are over 200 who were injured. Five have died so far, an incredible number, almost 40 are so seriously injured that we have to be very worried about them.
‘What a terrible act it is to injure and kill so many people with such brutality.’
The Chancellor laid a white rose at a church before heading towards his car, but he quickened his step after finding himself being heckled by the disapproving crowd.
Scholz was accompanied by interior minister Nancy Faeser and Justice Minister Volker Wissing.
Footage from earlier today features the politicians walking through the crowd amid audible boos and whistles, as angry bystanders yelled ‘Get out of here!’
Others were heard calling the group ‘criminals’ and ‘murderers’ as they hastily left the scene under police escort.
Amid the inflamed emotions, several opposition politicians have spoken out to claim the police could have stopped Friday’s attack if they had taken intelligence received more seriously.
Alice Weidel, leader of the hard-Right AfD, said that ‘staggering failures by the authorities made the horror of Magdeburg possible.’
On a statement posted to X she said: ‘While politicians deploy the security apparatus against the opposition and government critics, there is a lack of resources to defend against real threats.’
Weidel added that the AfD had requested a special session of the Bundestag to debate the matter further.
Meanwhile Sahra Wagenknecht, leader of the small left-wing BSW party, asked ‘why so many tips and warnings were ignored in advance,’ The Telegraph reports.
It is understood that police had previously spoken to Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, that he was on a ‘dangerous persons’ list and that Saudi Arabia had warned Germany about him because of his fierce criticism of his home country.
Despite this, police did not put him on a list of political extremists because he did not pose a ‘concrete danger.’
Several German media outlets have reported that the suspect, who police believe was working alone, was a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy.
He has lived in Germany since 2006 after arriving in the country as a refugee from Saudi Arabia, and has been practicing medicine in Bernburg, about 25 miles south of Magdeburg, officials said.
In 2013 he was sentenced by a German court for ‘disturbing the public peace by threatening to commit crimes’, according to Der Spiegel.
Three years later, he applied for asylum in Germany and his application was approved within four months.
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.
A motive for the attack remains unclear at this stage, although officials said the suspect’s ‘dissatisfaction with the treatment of refugees from Saudi Arabia in Germany’ may have been a factor.
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 has 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.
On Saturday night, heartbroken mourners respectfully gathered outside Magdeburg Cathedral.
Many brought candles, wreaths and teddy bears to honour the young victims slain and injured in the deadly attack.
Police officers accepted wreaths and red glass candles from those gathered as a helicopter hovered overhead.
Inside a sombre silence enveloped the cathedral despite it being at full capacity.
Those in attendance included emergency responders and fire fighters, victims’ families, and political leaders.
The church bells rang out at 7.03pm to mark the time of the deadly attack which had rocked the city just 24 hours earlier.
Regional Bishop Friedrich Kramer of the Evangelical Church in Central Germany, gave a defiant speech saying: ‘The peaceful space of the Christmas market has been destroyed and crushed.
‘We will not give the perpetrator our hate. Instead, we will stand for peace and unity.’
He encouraged people to focus on personal peace adding: ‘The safest space of peace you can protect is your heart.’
Simone Borris, Lord Mayor of Magdeburg, thanked emergency responders who had bravely responded to the scene tending to more than 200 injured.
‘Many of our rescue workers have seen things they will never forget,’ she acknowledged.
She spoke about supporting victims and families adding: ‘I am confident that we can overcome this grief together with our solidarity.’
Outside the cathedral more than 1,000 mourners braved the rain and biting cold to watch the service on a large screen.
But a less savoury picture was emerging at the other end of the city.
Less than 24 hours after the Christmas Market attack close to 1,000 right wing extremists descended on Magdeburg for a mass demonstration.
As people paid tribute to the five dead and many injured at a moving at the city’s cathedral, hate-filed slogans echoed on the streets in the distance.
The masked protestors who waved anti-immigration posters and shouted chants of ‘migration kills’ were escorted by hundreds of police in full riot gear as they marched through the city.
‘Among the demonstrators were many extremely violent far-right groups from across Germany. Many of them were masked,’ said Oliver Kreuzfeld, an expert on the far-right scene from Endstation Rechts, an initiative against extremism based in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
Kreuzfeld observed the demonstration and identified members of violent neo-Nazi groups known for past violent attacks on trains.
They also included members of long-established groups, like the Neonazi Kiez in Dortmund.