Car Rams Christmas Market in Magdeburg, Germany: Five Killed, More Than 200 Injured
On the evening of December 20, 2024, in Magdeburg, the capital of the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, a car drove into the crowded Christmas market in the city center, killing five people and injuring more than 200. Magdeburg city official Ronni Krug said on December 21 that the dead included a nine-year-old child and four adults, and that about 41 of the injured were seriously or critically hurt.
Police said the vehicle traveled at least 400 meters through the market, and the driver was arrested at a tram stop near the scene. Police cordoned off the area on suspicion that an explosive device might be in the car, and determined by midnight that there were no explosives in the vehicle. At 7:04 p.m. the following evening, the exact time of the attack, church bells tolled across Magdeburg in mourning for the victims.
The arrested driver is a 50-year-old doctor from Saudi Arabia who moved to Germany in 2006 and worked as a psychiatrist at a clinic in the nearby town of Bernburg. Magdeburg prosecutor Horst Walter Nopens told a news conference on December 21 that investigators were treating the case as five counts of suspected murder and 205 counts of suspected attempted murder. The motive had not been determined; one line of inquiry was the suspect's frustration with Germany's treatment of Saudi refugees. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the suspect's Islamophobia was clear to see, but she declined to comment on the motive.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz traveled to Magdeburg on December 21 to visit the scene and mourn the victims. Christmas markets are a centuries-old holiday tradition in Germany, and the attack shocked the country and put the security measures at the markets under intense scrutiny. (Source: Magdeburg prosecutors and police)
Source: Magdeburg prosecutors and police
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：袭击当晚，马格德堡圣诞市集附近街道被封锁，警车停在现场周边。Roy Zuo 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: On the night of the attack, streets near the Magdeburg Christmas market were sealed off, with police vehicles around the scene. Photo by Roy Zuo, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
