Magdeburg, Germany:
The Saudi suspect in Germany’s deadly car ram attack on a Christmas market had strong anti-Islam views and was angry with Germany’s migrant policy, an official said on Saturday.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz condemned the “terrible, insane” attack that killed five people and shocked the nation, days before Christmas and eight years after a jihadist drove a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin.
Police are unsure about the motive of Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, the main suspect after an SUV drove at high speed through a dense crowd on Friday, also injuring 205 people in the eastern city of Magdeburg.
The massive massacre caused grief and disgust, with a nine-year-old child among the dead and victims being treated in fifteen regional hospitals.
Germany has been hit by several deadly jihadist attacks, but evidence collected by investigators and his previous online posts painted a different picture of Abdulmohsen, a 50-year-old psychiatric doctor.
A self-proclaimed ‘Saudi atheist’ who, as an activist, helped women flee the oil-rich kingdom. He has railed against Islam, but also against what he saw as Germany’s tolerant attitude toward refugees from other, mainly Muslim countries.
Home Secretary Nancy Fraser said he held “Islamophobic” views, and a prosecutor said that “the background to the crime … could be dissatisfaction with the way Saudi Arabian refugees are being treated in Germany.”
Taha Al-Hajji of the Berlin-based European Saudi Organization for Human Rights told AFP Abdulmohsen was “a psychologically disturbed person with an exaggerated sense of self-importance”.
Call for unity
Abdulmohsen spoke in his online posts about his problems with and suspicions of the German authorities.
Last August, he posted on social media: “Is there a path to justice in Germany without blowing up a German embassy or randomly slaughtering German citizens? … If anyone knows, please let me know.”
The daily Die Welt reported, citing security sources, that German state and federal police had conducted a “risk assessment” of him last year but concluded he posed “no specific danger.”
A somber Scholz, dressed in black, visited the site of the attack on Saturday along with national and regional politicians and laid flowers outside the main church in Magdeburg.
Grieving and grieving residents left candles, flowers, cards and children’s toys at the Johanneskirche, where a memorial service was planned for 7 p.m.
Scholz vowed the state would respond to the attack “with the full force of the law” but also called for unity as Germany has been rocked by a heated debate over immigration and security ahead of February elections.
The centre-left chancellor said it was important “that we stick together, that we join arms, that it is not hatred that determines our coexistence, but the fact that we are a community pursuing a common future.”
He said he was grateful for the expressions of “solidarity… from many, many countries around the world. It is good to hear that we as Germans are not alone in the face of this terrible catastrophe.”
‘Sad and shocked’
Surveillance video footage of the attack showed a black BMW racing through the crowd, scattering bodies among festive stalls selling traditional handicrafts, snacks and mulled wine.
On Saturday, debris and discarded medical equipment blew across the cordoned off site, where stalls now stand empty around a giant Christmas tree. The event was canceled for the year out of respect for the victims.
The leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), Alice Weidel, who has focused on jihadist attacks in her campaign against immigrants, wrote on X: “When will this madness stop?”
“What happened today affects a lot of people. It affects us a lot,” Fael Kelion, a 27-year-old Cameroonian living in the city, told AFP.
“I think since (the suspect) is a foreigner, the population will be unhappy and less hospitable.”
Michael Raarig, 67 and an engineer, said: “I’m sad, I’m shocked. I never thought this could happen, here in an eastern German provincial town.”
He added that he believed the attack would “play into the hands of the AfD,” which has had the strongest support in the former communist East Germany.
Security was stepped up at Christmas markets elsewhere in Germany on Saturday, with more police seen in Hamburg, Leipzig and other cities.
German footballers held a minute’s silence during weekend matches and wore black armbands in tribute to the victims.
The regional Evangelical Church announced that at 7:03 PM (1803 GMT) “the time of yesterday’s attack on the Christmas market, the bells of all churches in Magdeburg and many places of worship in the area will ring.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)