Driver arrested after ramming German Christmas market

A driver rammed a car into a large crowd of revellers at a Christmas market in central Germany on Friday evening, killing at least two people and injuring more than 60 before he was arrested, authorities said.

One of the dead was a young child, said Reiner Haseloff, premier of the state of Saxony-Anhalt. The incident took place in Magdeburg, the state capital, 150 km (90 miles) west of Berlin.

Officials expect the death toll to rise given the severity of some of the injuries.

Haseloff described the attacker as a 50-year-old male doctor from Saudi Arabia with permanent residency in Germany, where he had lived for almost two decades.

The motive was unclear. 

Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry condemned the attack.

#Statement | The Foreign Ministry expresses the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's condemnation of the incident that took place in a market in the city of Magdeburg in the Federal Republic of Germany in which a car plowed into crowds, resulting in the death and injury of a number of… pic.twitter.com/Ozc85f0GpZ

— Foreign Ministry 🇸🇦 (@KSAmofaEN) December 21, 2024

A Saudi source told Reuters the kingdom had warned German authorities about the attacker, who the source said had posted extremist views on his personal X account.

Following the incident, police cleared an area surrounding the vehicle to investigate a possible explosive device, local broadcaster MDR reported. It later cited police as saying that no such device had been found.