MAGDEBURG, Germany (AFP) - A car barrelled through a Christmas market crowd in the eastern German city of Magdeburg on Friday (Dec 20), leaving 60 to 80 people injured, and at least two dead, in what regional authorities were treating as a suspected attack.
German state premier Reiner Haseloff announced that a Saudi man had been arrested in connection to the attack.
NTV television showed multiple ambulances and fire engines at the chaotic site with injured people being rushed off to hospitals and others being treated as they lay on the ground.
Cries and screams could be heard as police, medics and the fire service deployed to the litter-strewn market decorated with Christmas trees and festive lights.
"We presume it was an attack," a spokeswoman for the interior ministry of Saxony-Anhalt state told AFP.
News weekly Der Spiegel, citing security sources, said that a black BMW had barrelled through the crowd at high speed just after 7.00 pm local time when the market was filled with revellers.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz wrote on X that "the reports from Magdeburg raise the worst fears".
"My thoughts are with the victims and their families. We stand by their side and by the side of the people of Magdeburg. My thanks go to the dedicated rescue workers in these anxious hours."
The bloody carnage recalled a 2016 attack in which a man driving a lorry killed 12 people in a Christmas market in Berlin.
A 13th victim died later having suffered serious injuries in the assault, claimed by the Islamic State militant group.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has recently called on people to be vigilant at Christmas markets although she said authorities had not received any specific threats.
Domestic security service the Office for the Protection of the Constitution had warned it considers Christmas markets to be an "ideologically suitable target for Islamist-motivated people".