Scores of people have been injured and several killed on Friday after a car ploughed into a crowd of people at a Christmas market in the eastern German town of Magdeburg, in what local officials are describing as a terror attack.
The number of victims was not immediately clear, but German media citing emergency services in the region said between 60 and 80 people might have been injured.
A dark BMW apparently drove straight into the crowd at the Christmas market, heading in the direction of the town hall, according to eyewitnesses cited by the broadcaster.
The driver of the car was arrested immediately, German news agency dpa reported, citing unidentified government officials in the state of Saxony-Anhalt. He was identified as a Saudi citizen who rented the car shortly before the attack, according to reports citing a security source.
Many police officers and emergency services were at the scene, and the Christmas market manager had told people to leave the city centre, according to broadcaster MDR.
Emergency workers were seen treating victims on the ground at the market, surrounded by blood. Witnesses reported hearing cries and screams. The operator of a food stall on the market described the scenes as “reminiscent of a war”.
“This is a terrible event, particularly now in the days before Christmas,” Saxony-Anhalt’s leader Reiner Haseloff who was on his way to Magdeburg said.
“The reports from Magdeburg raise the worst fears,” wrote German chancellor Olaf Scholz on X.
Michael Reif, spokesperson for the city addressed journalists near the market, confirming that the incident had taken place at about 7.04 pm local time and was being treated as a terror attack rather than an accident.
He said: “The images are terrible. According to my knowledge the car drove into the crowds of visitors … but from what direction and how far it went, I can’t say.”
A woman who spoke to the regional newspaper, the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung said that the perpetrator had “driven deliberately into the section of the Christmas market decked out with scenes from fairytales, where a lot of families with young children were gathered. She told the paper she had just managed to fling herself and her child out of the path of the vehicle.
Videos posted on social media appeared to capture the attack, showing a dark coloured car drive into the crowds at high speed. Several media outlets showed the videos in their coverage, but the authenticity of the footage has yet to be officially confirmed.
Magdeburg, which is west of Berlin, is the state capital of Saxony-Anhalt and has about 240,000 inhabitants.
Germany is home to an estimated 2,500 to 3000 Christmas markets which are hosted around the country for about a month, from the end of November to just after Christmas.
Keeping the markets secure has been a major issue ever since 2016 when an Islamist extremist attacker drove a truck into a crowd of Christmas market-goers in Berlin, leaving 13 people dead and dozens more injured. The attacker was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.
German interior minister Nancy Faeser had said late last month that there were no concrete indications of a danger to Christmas markets this year, but that it was wise to be vigilant. Many Christmas markets, including the one on Breitscheid Platz in Berlin which was the target of the attack in 2016, have installed extra security including traffic bollards, in an attempt to prevent it from happening again.