A vehicle drove into a Christmas market in the city of Magdeburg, located in central Germany, on Friday evening, injuring many attendees in what local officials suspect to be a deliberate attack. Video footage shared online captures the moment a car crashed into the bustling crowd at the festive event, sending people scrambling for safety. Authorities reported the driver has been arrested.
Regional government spokesperson Matthias Schuppe and city spokesperson Michael Reif have indicated that this ramming incident may indeed be an attack, as confirmed by statements from the German public broadcaster. "This is a terrible event, especially now in the days leading up to Christmas," expressed Reiner Haseloff, the governor of Saxony-Anhalt, the state where Magdeburg serves as the capital.
While the police have yet to provide an official count of the injured, heavy police presence has been deployed to the scene. The area surrounding the market has been cordoned off for safety. Christmas markets, which number over 1,000 across Germany every year, have been targeted in the past, including a horrific attack in 2016 when an extremist used a truck to ram into a crowd in Berlin, resulting in 13 fatalities.
In the aftermath of the Magdeburg incident, video footage verified by the New York Times showcases the chaos as well as the subsequent efforts to assist those wounded. Chancellor Olaf Scholz reacted to the alarming reports, expressing his thoughts alongside the sentiments of solidarity for the victims and their families in a social media post.
