At least two people were killed and dozens injured when a car drove into a busy Christmas market in Magdeburg on Friday. Authorities said it appeared to be a premeditated attack.

The driver of the car was arrested at the scene of the accident, the Magdeburg police confirmed. They said they currently believe he is a “lone perpetrator.”

The Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt, Reiner Haseloff, spoke of an “individual attack”. At a press conference at the crime scene in Magdeburg, he said that the suspect was a 50-year-old doctor who came to Germany in 2006. The man had a permanent residence and work permit in the country, he said.

Authorities said the driver had no criminal record and the possible motive was unknown. The area surrounding the vehicle was cordoned off by investigators.

Haseloff said the two confirmed dead were an adult and an infant. He said at least 60 people were injured and further deaths could not be ruled out. Tamara Zieschang, Interior Minister of the state of Saxony-Anhalt, said the number of injured was 68, 15 of whom were seriously injured.

“It was a really chaotic situation,” Lars Frohmüller, a reporter for German public broadcaster MDR, told CBS News partner BBC.

“We saw blood on the floor, we saw people sitting next to each other … and we saw a lot of doctors trying to keep people warm and help them with their injuries,” he said.

“There were ambulances everywhere, there were police, there were lots of firefighters.”

Shortly after the crash, Magdeburg University Hospital said it was caring for 10 to 20 patients but was preparing for more patients, the dpa news agency reported.

The siren sounds from first responders clashed with the market’s Christmas decorations, including ornaments, stars and leaf garlands that adorned vendors’ stands. Crime scene footage of a cordoned off part of the market showed debris on the ground.

“This is a terrible event, especially now in the run-up to Christmas,” said Haseloff.

Chancellor OIaf Scholz posted on X: “My thoughts are with the victims and their families. We stand by their side and by the people of Magdeburg.”

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also expressed her condolences and wrote: “This act of violence must be investigated and severely punished.”

After the incident, the New York Police Department said it had deployed resources to various Christmas markets and other locations around the city “out of an abundance of caution,” but said it had not identified any specific or credible threats.

Magdeburg, located west of Berlin, is the state capital of Saxony-Anhalt and has around 240,000 inhabitants.

The alleged attack occurred eight years after an attack on a Christmas market in Berlin. On December 19, 2016, an Islamic extremist plowed through a crowded Christmas festival with a truck13 people were killed and dozens more injured. The attacker was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.

Christmas markets are an important part of German culture, an annual holiday tradition that has been valued since the Middle Ages and successfully exported to much of the Western world. In Berlin alone, more than 100 markets opened at the end of last month, bringing the smell of mulled wine, roasted almonds and bratwurst to the capital. Other markets abound throughout the country.

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said late last month that there was no concrete evidence of a threat to Christmas markets this year but that it was advisable to be vigilant. She said on social media on Friday: “The news from Magdeburg is deeply shocking. The emergency services are doing everything they can to care for the injured and save lives. Our thoughts are with the victims and their families.”

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