German Christmas market attack – latest: Four dead after car ploughs into crowd

The death toll in a car-ramming attack at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg has risen to four people, and 41 others were gravely injured, the Bild newspaper reported on Saturday.

Eighty-six people are receiving hospital treatment for serious injuries incurred in the incident on Friday evening in the central city, while another 78 sustained minor injuries, the report said.

Police were not immediately available to comment on casualties. Local officials had initially said it least two people were killed and had warned that the toll could rise.

Police have arrested a 50-year-old Saudi doctor after a car ploughed into a German Christmas market.

He has been identified by local media as Taleb A., a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy who sympathised with Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany party.

Magdeburg Mayor Simone Borris said officials plan to arrange a memorial at the city’s cathedral on Saturday.

The mayor was reported to be on the verge of tears following the attack, which has shaken the German city and the country.

A police officer who was one of the first on the scene described in harrowing detail what he witnessed to German news outlet DER SPIEGEL.

“Nobody prepares you for something like that,” the unnamed officer said. “We walked over the dead.”

The officer said he was at the market on a routine patrol when he saw the car speeding by.

After barrelling through the crowd in the vehicle, the suspect surrendered, according to the officer.

“He then more or less surrendered himself,” the police officer said.

Billionaire Elon Musk, set to join US president-elect Donald Trump’s administration as an outside adviser, called on German chancellor Olaf Scholz to resign in response to a deadly attack at a Christmas market.

“Scholz should resign immediately,” he posted on X, adding: “Incompetent fool.”

Mr Musk was responding in a thread about reports of the market attack. Earlier on Friday, he waded into Germany’s election campaign, calling the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) the country’s saviour.

The AfD is running second in opinion polls and might be able to thwart either a centre-right or centre-left majority, but Germany’s mainstream, more centrist parties have vowed to shun support from the AfD at national level.

Europe’s leading power is expected to vote on February 23 after a centre-left coalition government led by Scholz collapsed.

“Only the AfD can save Germany,” Mr Musk wrote in a post on his social media platform, X.

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

The source identified the suspect as Taleb Abdul Jawad.

Germany’s Der Spiegel identified the attacker as Taleb A, a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy who sympathised with Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany party.

The magazine did not say where it got the information.

Friday’s attack prompted several other German towns to cancel their weekend Christmas markets as a precaution and out of solidarity with Magdeburg’s loss, the Associated Press reported.

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said last month that there were no concrete indications of a danger to Christmas markets this year, but that it was wise to be vigilant.