Alert – Revealed: Police were warned a year ago that Xmas market maniac was planning an atrocity – but did nothing more than take screenshots of his twisted online threats

The Saudi doctor who killed five people by ploughing his BMW into a Christmas market vowed to slaughter ’20 Germans’ last year.

German police were warned about ‘unstable’ Dr Taleb Al-Abdulmohsen in September last year, but did nothing more than take screenshots of his twisted online threats.

The 50-year-old psychiatrist rammed his SUV into a packed market in the town of Magdeburg on Friday night, leaving a nine-year-old boy and four adults dead and injuring more than 200 people, 40 of them critically. 

Footage showed scenes of horror with the car cutting through families who barely had time to turn their heads.

A woman reported his online threat, made in Arabic, to Berlin police, as well as the German migration authorities. But no action was taken. Last night she said Al-Abdulmohsen ‘openly threatened the lives of Germans but police didn’t arrest him or take any action. This could have been prevented if the police had done their job properly.’

Al-Abdulmohsen had bypassed security bollards and used an emergency corridor – which should have been blocked for anything other than ambulances and police vehicles – to enter the market.

He launched his attack just after 7pm local time in Germany, as thousands of shoppers gathered at the centre of Magdeburg.

Driving slowly at first, the blue SUV turned in to an alleyway where hundreds of shoppers were browsing stalls and sipping mulled wine. 

A police vehicle is stationed at the scene of a vehicle-ramming attack on the Christmas market on December 21

Several German media outlets identified the suspect as Taleb A (pictured), and reported that he was a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy

Pictured: Taleb A the alleged car-ramming perpetrator that killed 5 and injured more than 200 in an attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg, eastern Germany

Firefighters patrol the scene of the crash on Friday after a car rammed into a massive crowd of shoppers at a Christmas market in Magdeburg at around 7pm

The Christmas market, where a car drove into a crowd on Friday evening, in Magdeburg, Germany, is empty on Saturday evening

Mourners lit candles and placed flowers outside a church near the market on the cold and gloomy day

Debris and empty stalls are seen on a closed Christmas market one day after a car-ramming attack in Magdeburg

He then pointed his vehicle directly at the crowd and ploughed forward. As shoppers fled in panic, the driver turned another corner and drove out of the market. An off-duty policeman pursued the BMW until he came to a halt outside Magdeburg shopping centre, where he was arrested at gunpoint by armed officers.

As the five deaths were confirmed in a sombre press conference last night, details emerged of the youngest victim, who was nine, and was out shopping with his mother.

Last night, his mother, posted a poignant message for her son. She said: ‘Let my little teddy bear fly around the world again… [my son] hadn’t done anything to anyone… he was only with us on Earth for nine years… why you… why?’

The boy was a member of the local youth fire brigade club. It posted: ‘We are particularly saddened by the loss of such a young life from our own ranks.’

As Germany grieved last night, anger was also boiling up, with signs that troublesome days lie ahead. More than 1,000 far-Right thugs descended on Magdeburg to protest against the attack, with anger visible on their faces.

Although no violence broke out, there were fears that more such protests lay ahead.

As Al-Abdulmohsen was being questioned, it was revealed that he was on drugs during the attack, but police did not give more details. Authorities said that his mental and physical states were being examined.

The prosecutor said that the medic’s grievance about how Germany was treating Saudi dissident asylum seekers was part of the investigation as a possible motive.

Police officers secure the area during the German Chancellor’s visit to the scene of a vehicle-ramming attack on the Christmas market in Magdeburg

People lay flowers at a makeshift memorial near the site of a car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg

Although his Saudi background and a vehicle attack on a Christian event had all the signs of an Islamist terror attack, Al-Abdulmohsen’s background has shown that it was ‘unusual and contradictory’.

Peter Neumann, professor of security studies at King’s College, London, said: ‘He is against Islam, he supports [the Right-wing] AfD party, he is not an Isis supporter, but he did an attack like an Isis terrorist. So it is a bit of a cliché to say it, but this all may suggest mental health issues.’

There were also claims made on social media that the Saudis had warned the German authorities at least three times about Al-Abdulmohsen, but were ignored.

But Professor Neumann said that the claims could be part of a Saudi disinformation campaign, as Al-Abdulmohsen was a staunch critic of the country’s rulers.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who visited the site of the attack, said that he was ‘very worried for the 40’ said to be critically ill.

There were also questions as to how another attack on a Christmas market was allowed to happen, eight years after the atrocity at the Breitscheidplatz market in Berlin, which left 13 dead and 70 injured. Experts were also dismayed at how police and intelligence services missed warning signs.

Al-Abdulmohsen was a high-profile Saudi ex-Muslim who openly made his threats on social media where he endorsed far-Right leaders such as Britain’s Tommy Robinson. His warning of a killing spree last year followed a dispute with a German refuge for atheist asylum seekers. He claimed staff there sexually assaulted a number of Saudi women.

In a tweet he said: ‘Would you blame me if I randomly killed 20 Germans because of what Germany is doing against the Saudis?’

Plush toys, candles and floral tributes lie near the site where a car drove into a crowd at a Magdeburg Christmas market

And in August this year, he posted in Arabic: ‘I assure you that if Germany wants a war, we will fight it. If Germany wants to kill us, we will slaughter them, die, or go to prison with pride.

‘Because we have exhausted all peaceful means and all we have received from the police, state security, the prosecution, the judiciary, and the Ministry of the Interior is more crimes against us. Peace is of no use with them.’

He also accused the country of allowing too many Syrian terrorists to enter the country.

He tweeted: ‘Germany’s goal has become clear: to spread Islam in Europe. They are attacking political movements critical of Islam by infiltrating them with corrupt people, including addicts, prostitutes, and thieves, in order to corrupt the movement from within.’