(Bloomberg) -- Germany is reeling after an attacker drove a car into a Christmas market in the eastern city of Magdeburg, killing five people, in an incident that’s likely to inflame debate over public safety ahead of federal elections in February.
Most Read from Bloomberg
-
New York’s Congestion Pricing Plan Still Faces Legal Hurdles
-
New York City’s Historic Preservation Movement Is Having a Midlife Crisis
-
NYPD Car Chases Are Becoming More Frequent — and More Dangerous
The Friday evening assault recalled a similar attack in Berlin in 2016, when a driver plowed a truck into a crowd, leaving 13 dead. That sparked an increase in security, including a profileration of bollards and barriers, to hinder vehicles from entering the marketplaces that pop up in the thousands across Germany in the run-up to Christmas.
The number of fatalities has risen to five and more than 200 people were injured, Saxony-Anhalt state premier Reiner Haseloff said. More than 40 are so seriously wounded “that we have to be very concerned about them,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz said during a visit to the state capital on Saturday.
“It is important that we investigate and that we do so with the utmost precision and accuracy,” Scholz said. “Nothing must be left untouched.”
The suspect, a doctor of Saudi Arabian origin who works in the region, drove a rental vehicle into the crowd and was taken into custody, Haseloff said. Authorities investigating the motive behind the attack believe the perpetrator acted alone.
Past social media posts and media appearances depict the suspect as a critic of Islam who had adopted far-right views, Der Spiegel reported. He openly sympathized with the nationalist Alternative for Germany, or AfD, and criticized Germany’s tolerant stance on migration, according to the report. He also set up a website and offered advice on how to flee Saudi Arabia, especially women, Der Spiegel said.
German authorities conducted a risk assessment on the man last year before concluding that he posed no concrete danger, Die Welt newspaper reported, citing security officials it didn’t identify.
“After 25 years in this ‘business’ you think nothing could surprise you anymore,” Peter Neumann, a professor at King’s College London specializing in terrorism and security, wrote in a post on X. “But a 50-year-old Saudi ex-Muslim who lives in East Germany, loves the AfD and wants to punish Germany for its tolerance towards Islamists — that really wasn’t on my radar.”
Saudi Arabia condemned the attack in a statement from the foreign ministry. “The Kingdom affirms its position in rejecting violence, and expresses its sympathy and sincere condolences to the families of the victims, and to the government and people of the Federal Republic of Germany, wishing the injured a speedy recovery,” the ministry said.