At least two people, an adult and a small child, were killed in an attack on the Magdeburg Christmas market. The perpetrator races into the crowd in a rental car.

Saxony-Anhalt’s Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff spoke of a lot of injuries, at least 60. “This is a catastrophe for the city of Magdeburg and for the country and also for Germany in general,” said Haseloff. The police gave the number of 15 seriously injured people.

What we know

• According to initial findings, the man is a 50-year-old specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy from Saudi Arabia. He was born in 1974.
• He came to Germany in 2006 and lives in Bernburg, around 50 kilometers south of Magdeburg. According to information from WELT, a police operation took place at his place of residence that night.
• According to WELT information from security circles, the alleged perpetrator is said to have worked as a doctor in the penal system in Bernburg. The Bernburg correctional facility is a facility run by the state of Saxony-Anhalt to improve and protect addicted criminals.
• He has a permanent residence permit because he was recognized as a refugee in Germany in 2016.
• “According to the current status, it is a single perpetrator, so as far as we can see there is no further danger to the city because we were able to arrest him and all investigations are now underway,” said Haseloff.
• In a 2019 FAZ interview, the perpetrator described himself as the “most aggressive critic of Islam in history”. He is an atheist and applied for Aysl in Germany because he feared persecution in his home country as an infidel and critic of Islam. The BBC and “Spiegel” reported something similar in 2019.
• He had made it his mission to show other people being persecuted in Saudi Arabia a path to asylum in places such as Germany or Australia.