It was around 7 pm on Friday evening that the car, an SUV, drove straight into the crowd at the Christmas market in Magdeburg in eastern Germany. For three whole minutes, the perpetrator drove 400 meters before being stopped and arrested on the spot.
He is believed to have entered through an emergency entrance intended for ambulances and rescue services, where there were no obstacles, according to police and prosecutors at a press conference, as reported by several German media outlets.
Four adults and one child were killed. About 200 people were injured, 40 of them seriously. Those affected are being treated at 15 different hospitals, and the death toll may rise.
The man suspected of the attack is expected to be charged with five murders and 200 attempted murders. He was questioned on Saturday afternoon, and it is believed that he acted alone.
"Islamophobic" views
Work is underway to clarify the motive behind the incident, but it is linked to "dissatisfaction with how Saudi refugees are treated in Germany," according to prosecutor Horst Walter Nopens.
Earlier, Germany's Interior Minister said that the suspect is believed to have "Islamophobic" views.
The driver is a 50-year-old doctor from Saudi Arabia, who has lived in Germany for nearly two decades.
On Saturday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited the site of the Christmas market. He is also expected to participate in a memorial service in the evening at the city's cathedral.
At the site in Magdeburg, he said that nearly 40 people have such severe injuries that "we have to worry about them."
Such a terrible act it is to harm and kill so many people with such brutality, he said.
Markets cancelled
Scholz condemns the attack, which he calls a "terrible catastrophe". He promises that Germany will act "with the full force of the law".
The attack has led several other German cities to cancel their Christmas markets over the weekend as a precautionary measure and in solidarity with the victims in Magdeburg. Cities and federal states such as Berlin, Hamburg, and Bavaria are increasing security.
Christmas markets are a German holiday tradition that has its roots in the Middle Ages and attracts many international tourists.
Eight years ago, twelve people were killed when a stolen truck drove into a Christmas market in Berlin, in an Islamic terrorist attack.
Corrected: An earlier version of the text contained an uncertain report about the gender of the deceased child, as well as an incorrect description of Bavaria.
