Sadness and anger after attack on Magdeburg Christmas market

Magdeburg’s Christmas market is a sad sight. It should have been the busiest weekend of the season, but the entire area has been cordoned off and all the stands are closed.

The police are the only people hanging around the boarded-up mulled wine and gingerbread stalls.

Red candles flicker on the sidewalk, paying tribute to the victims.

Lucas, a truck driver, told me he felt compelled to come to pay his respects. “I wasn’t there when it happened,” he told me.

“But I work here in Magdeburg. I come here every day. I’ve driven here thousands of times.”

“This is a tragedy for everyone in Magdeburg. The culprit must be punished.”

“We can only hope that the victims and their families will find the strength to get through this.”

There is sadness here – but there is also anger.

Many people here are seeing this attack as a terrible lapse in security. It is a claim that officials deny, although they have acknowledged that the attacker entered the market using a route planned for emergency responders.

“There should have been better security,” said Michael, who came to pay tribute to the victims.

“We should have prepared better but it was not done properly.”

Standing at the security cordon, I overheard a group of locals complaining loudly about German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and regional politicians.

One man said, “They are wasting our tax money, they are just taking care of themselves. They have no interest in us. We just hear empty promises.”

“They are trying to spin whatever happened here and blame it on the opposition and use it for their election campaign,” he said.

On Saturday evening, around the same time that the square in front of Magdeburg’s Gothic cathedral was filled with mourners watching a memorial service, a demonstration took place nearby, where protesters chanted far-right, xenophobic slogans.

It is not yet clear what impact this attack may have on Germany’s upcoming elections.

Germany has been hit by several deadly Islamic attacks in the past, but investigators said the evidence they have gathered so far paints a different picture in this case.

German Interior Minister Nancy Feser said the suspect appeared to be “Islamophobic”.

The suspect, Taleb al-Abdulmohsin, is from Saudi Arabia, and his social media posts suggest he was critical of Islam.