Police in Magdeburg have said they received multiple warnings about the man suspected of driving a car into a German Christmas market on Friday, killing five people including a nine year-old boy.
The suspect, a 50-year-old Saudi national living in Germany since 2006, is being held on remand on charges of murder and attempted murder, with 205 people injured, including 40 people in a critical condition.
The youngest victim, a nine year-old boy named locally as André, was visiting the market with his mother from neighbouring Lower Saxony.
German Facebook users shared a post – purportedly from the dead boy’s mother: “He was only nine years with us on earth. Why you, why, I don’t understand. You will live always in our hearts. I promise you that.”
German authorities received multiple warnings over Christmas market attack suspect
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The four other victims were all women aged 45, 52, 67 and 75. Three of the four were from the state of Saxony-Anhalt, of which Magdeburg is the capital.
On Friday evening at 7.01pm, a black SUV bypassed perimeter blocks to crash into the Christmas market in central Magdeburg, 140km southwest of Berlin. After three minutes and 400m, taking two turns, the car came to a stop and police arrested the driver.
On Saturday evening a magistrate ordered the man, identified in German media as Taleb A, into pretrial custody after prosecutors pressed charges of murder on five counts, multiple counts of attempted murder and grievous bodily harm.
Unclear remains the motivation for Friday’s attack, as well as whether German police ignored warnings about threats made by the man in social media posts.
Germany’s federal criminal police (BKA) have confirmed receiving a tip-off from Saudi Arabia about the man in November 2023.
BKA chief Holger Münch said local police in Saxony-Anhalt followed up but the information was “unspecific”.
“He had various contacts with authorities with insults and sometimes even made threats, but he was not known for acts of violence,” added Münch.
Various media outlets have quote from social media reports, allegedly from the suspect, saying Germany would pay a “price” for allowing large numbers of Muslims – like him – into the country.
Münch said the suspect, an anti-Islamist former Muslim was “a completely atypical pattern”.
“We now have to analyse every detail calmly” he said.
