world news
Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024 Citizens mourn the dead outside St. John’s Church near the Christmas market after a car plowed into a crowd Friday night in Magdeburg, Germany. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noorozi)
MAGDEBURG, Germany (AP) – Germany is on fire after a Saudi doctor intentionally drove his car into a Christmas market crowded with holiday shoppers, killing at least five people, including a young child, and injuring at least 200 others. On Saturday, the nation mourned the victims and their shaky sense of security. others.
Authorities arrested a 50-year-old man at the scene of the attack in Magdeburg on Friday night and detained him for questioning. He has lived in Germany since 2006 and works as a doctor in Bernburg, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Magdeburg. officials said.
Governor Rainer Hazelov told reporters that the death toll had increased to five from two, with a total of more than 200 injured.
Prime Minister Olaf Scholz said nearly 40 of them were “very seriously injured and we have to be very concerned.”
“There is no place more peaceful and cheerful than a Christmas market,” Scholz said. “What a terrible act to injure and kill so many people with such brutality.”
Neurosurgeon Mahmoud Elenbaby said about 80 patients were taken to Magdeburg’s University Hospital on Friday night.
“We were able to stabilize most of them, but many are still in intensive care and some are in critical condition,” Ellenbaby said in the hospital cafeteria to buy a Coke. He told The Associated Press as he rushed in.
German media outlets identified the suspect as Taleb A., who withheld his last name in accordance with privacy laws, and reported that he was an expert in psychiatry and psychotherapy.
On a cold, gloomy day, mourners lit candles and laid flowers outside a church near the market. Some people stopped and cried. The choir of the Berlin church whose members witnessed the 2016 Christmas market attack sang “Amazing Grace,” a hymn about God’s mercy, and offered prayers and solidarity for the victims.
There were still no answers Saturday as to why the man drove his black BMW into a crowd in the eastern German city.
The suspect, who described himself as a former Muslim, shared dozens of tweets and retweets each day that focused on anti-Muslim themes, criticized the religion, and celebrated Muslims who had left the faith.
He also accused German authorities of not doing enough to combat what he called “European Islamism.”
The violence shocked Germany and Germany, brought the mayor to tears and ruined a festive event that is part of Germany’s centuries-old tradition. In response, several other German towns canceled their weekend Christmas markets as a precaution and in solidarity with Magdeburg’s loss. Berlin kept its markets open but increased the police presence there.
Germany has experienced a series of extremist attacks in recent years, including a knife attack at a festival in the western city of Solingen in August that left three people dead and eight injured.
Magdeburg is a city of approximately 240,000 people located west of Berlin and the capital of the state of Saxony-Anhalt. Friday’s attack came eight years after Islamic extremists drove a truck into Berlin’s crowded Christmas market, killing 13 people and injuring scores more. The attacker was killed days later in a gunfight in Italy.
Prime Minister Scholz and Interior Minister Nancy Feser will visit Magdeburg on Saturday, and a memorial service will be held at the city’s cathedral in the evening. Feser ordered flags to be lowered to half-staff at federal buildings across the country.
Verified bystander footage distributed by German news agency dpa showed the suspect being arrested at a tram stop in the middle of the road. A nearby police officer pointed a handgun at the man, who was lying face down with his head slightly arched, and yelled at him. Other officers crowded around the suspect and took him into custody.
Thi Linh Chi Nguyen (34), a nail technician from Vietnam, has a salon in a shopping mall opposite the Christmas market. She was on the phone during a break when she heard a loud explosion. thought it was fireworks. Later, she saw a car speeding through the market. People screamed and children were thrown into cars.
As he trembled and described the horror he had witnessed, he recalled how the car sped out of the market, turned right onto Ernst Reuter-Allee and stopped at the tram stop where the suspect was arrested.
The number of injured was overwhelming.
“My husband and I helped them for two hours. He ran back to the house and grabbed as many blankets as he could because there weren’t enough blankets to cover the injured. And it was very cold.” she said.
The market itself remained closed off on Saturday, with red and white tape and police vans posted every 50 meters (yards). Police with machine pistols guarded all entrances to the market. Some thermal blankets are still left on the streets.
Christmas markets are a cherished German holiday tradition dating back to the Middle Ages, and are now exported to many Western countries.
Mr. Murson reported from Berlin and Mr. Gera from Warsaw, Poland.
