German Christmas market attack suspect remanded

A man accused of killing four women and a nine-year-old boy by running over a car at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg has been remanded in custody.

The 50-year-old man was brought to Magdeburg District Court on Saturday evening following the Friday incident, when a black BMW car plowed into a crowded market, injuring more than 200 people.

Magdeburg police said the investigation was ongoing and officers were appealing for witnesses to send photographs or video of the incident.

Local media have named the suspect as Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, a 50-year-old Saudi national who came to Germany in 2006 and worked as a doctor.

On Sunday morning, Magdeburg police confirmed that four women, aged 45, 52, 67 and 75, were also killed in the incident.

“The judge ordered his detention before trial on five counts of murder, several counts of attempted murder and several counts of grievous bodily harm,” its statement said.

City officials said about 100 police, medics and firefighters, as well as 50 rescue service personnel, rushed to the scene shortly after 19:00 local time (18:00 GMT) on Friday.

Eyewitnesses described how they had to move out of the way of the car during the attack.

In an interview with German newspaper Bild, a woman named Nadine explained that she was at a Christmas market with her boyfriend Marco when the car came speeding towards them.

“He was hit and pulled from my side,” the 32-year-old told the newspaper. “It was horrible.”

Reporter Lars Frohmüller of the German public broadcaster MDR told BBC Radio 4’s World Tonight program that he saw “blood on the floor” as well as “several doctors trying to keep people warm and help with their injuries”.

A memorial service was held at Magdeburg Cathedral on Saturday evening for the victims of the attack

The service was attended by families of the victims, emergency workers, and federal government officials, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

During a tour of the market on Saturday, Scholz described the attack as a “terrible tragedy” because “so many people were injured and killed so brutally” in a place that is supposed to be “happy”.

He told reporters there were grave concerns for those seriously injured and that “all resources” would be allocated to investigating the suspect behind the attack.

Earlier, Saxony-Anhalt state premier Rainer Hasselhoff said a preliminary investigation showed the alleged attacker was acting alone.

Prosecutor Horst Walter Nopens said on Saturday that the investigation was ongoing, but he suggested that a possible motive for the attack could be “dissatisfaction with the way Saudi Arabian refugees are treated in Germany”.

Police said al-Abdulmohsen was believed to have entered the market through an entry point reserved for emergency vehicles.

The suspect is a psychiatrist who lived in Bernburg, about 40 km (25 mi) south of Magdeburg.

Al-Abdulmohsen, originally from Saudi Arabia, arrived in Germany in 2006 and was recognized as a refugee in 2016.

He ran a website aimed at helping other former Muslims escape persecution in their Gulf countries.

The suspected attacker has no known links to Islamic extremism. His social media and posts appear to indicate that he was critical of Islam.

A source close to the Saudi government told the BBC that it sent four official notifications, known as “Notes Verbale”, to German authorities, warning them of what they said were al-Abdulmohsen’s “very extreme views”. .

The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said these notifications were ignored.

However, another veteran counterterrorism expert said the Saudis were waging a disinformation campaign to discredit someone who had tried to help young Saudi women seek asylum in Germany.

Additional reporting by Frank Gardner.