Five dead and 200 injured in Magdeburg Christmas market attack
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This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Bernadette Keogh, and in the early hours of Sunday 22nd December, these are our main stories. The German city of Magdeburg is in mourning after a car was driven into a crowd at a Christmas market, killing five. We hear about the possible motives the suspected attacker may have had. Albania is to shut down TikTok for at least a year. Also in this podcast, the US avoids a government shutdown after days of political turmoil. And the musicians of Syria pondering what the new Islamic leadership will mean for creative freedom.
We are willing to talk to them with logic. We are willing to talk to them with a real proposal. It doesn't seem like in the first week of freeing Syria they are willing to look for the cultural side.
We start in Germany and Friday evening's attack at a Christmas market in Magdeburg. The number of people killed has risen to five. A nine-year-old child was among them. 200 people were injured, around 40 of them seriously. The suspect, who was arrested at the scene, has been identified as a 50-year-old doctor, Taleb al-Abdelmozan from Saudi Arabia. Residents of the city have been laying flowers for the victims of the attack and there's still a sense of profound shock.
Unbelievably sad. It's unbelievable. I feel shocked. There are no words, no suitable words. I live right behind the mall, the alley centre. It's simply unbelievable.
On Saturday evening, a memorial service took place at Magdeburg Cathedral. Hundreds of people were in attendance, including families of the victims and emergency service workers. Earlier on Saturday, during his visit to Magdeburg, the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz described the attack as a tragedy and called for unity. Our correspondent Bethany Bell has spent the day in the city.
Magdeburg is in mourning. Outside a church close to the Christmas market, people have been laying flowers and lighting candles. Many were in tears, struggling to understand how an evening of holiday celebrations could turn into such a nightmare. This morning, Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz placed a white rose at the site. He said the attack was a dreadful tragedy.
It's important to me that when such a terrible, horrific event takes place, that we stay together as a country, that we stick together and that we unite. That it's not hatred that determines our togetherness, but the fact that we are a community that wants to win a common future. And that we won't let those who want to sow hatred get away with it.
Other national and regional politicians joined Mr Schultz in paying tribute to the victims. But as they left, there were angry shouts from the crowd. Go away, they yelled. We are the people. More details have emerged about the suspect, who's been named by police as Taleb al-Abdel Mohsen. Originally from Saudi Arabia, he arrived in Germany in 2006 and was recognised as a refugee in 2016. He worked as a psychiatrist at a specialist clinic in the nearby town of Bernburg. The clinic said he'd worked there since 2020, but had not been on duty since October because of sickness and holiday. Officials are still working to clarify the motive. Germany's interior minister, Nancy Faeser, said the suspect was believed to hold Islamophobic views.
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Speakers
19 identified
Bernadette Keogh 6 min
Barbara Pletusher 2 min
Sebastian Usher 2 min
Peter Bowes 2 min
Dr Hans Jakob Schindler 2 min
Christina Felk 2 min
Bethany Bell 2 min
Frank Gardner 1 min
DJ Mahar Green 1 min
Owen Bennett-Jones 1 min
Shana Galeyeva 1 min
Katya Adler
Paul Moss
Kira
Nicola Coughlan
Mike Johnson
Chuck Schumer
Jason Burchard
Giuseppe Irto
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