Thousands gather in Magdeburg for memorial to victims of car attack ...Middle East

A memorial service has taken place for the victims of the attack on Magdeburg Christmas market in Germany, in which a man drove a car at speed through crowds of people killing five people, including a nine-year-old child, and injuring 200 more.

The president of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and Chancellor Olaf Scholz were among those to attend the service at Magdeburg Cathedral, which city officials estimate was attended by around a thousand people, including firefighters and first responders, and the families of the victims and the injured.

Crowds also gathered outside the cathedral to lay flowers, teddy bears, and stand in candlelit vigil for the service which was also aired on large screens outside the building.

Earlier on Saturday, a spontaneous memorial was created by grieving families and local residents at a church overlooking Magdeburg’s Christmas market but during the day it evolved into something more politically charged.

The changing tone at the site of Friday’s attack reflected political tensions in a country racked by arguments over immigration and the surging popularity of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).

Authorities arrested a Saudi man with a history of anti-Islamic rhetoric but said the motives for the attack were not yet known.

The suspect has been named in German media but not yet by police.

At first, as people laid flowers outside the church in the early morning, there were just expressions of sorrow and grief.

Andrea Reis, 57, arrived with her daughter Julia, 34, and reflected on a narrow escape.

It was only because her daughter wanted them to keep walking round the market rather than stop to eat that they were not in the path of the car that ploughed through the market, she said.

“It was the terrible sounds, children calling ‘mama, papa,’, ‘help me’ – they’re going round in my head now,” Reis told the Reuters news agency, a tear trickling down her cheek.

Another young woman sobbed, bent double with grief as an older couple embraced her.

Initially, the attack drew comparisons on social media to an Islamist-influenced immigrant’s deadly attack on a Berlin Christmas market in 2016.

Timeline of horror: How the Magdeburg Christmas market car attack unfolded

Later it emerged that the suspect, a psychiatrist who had lived in Germany for 18 years, had criticised Islam and expressed sympathy for the far right in past social media posts. This prompted damage control by the far right.

Martin Sellner, an Austrian popular with Germany’s far-right, posted on social media that the suspect’s motives “seemed to have been complex”, adding that the suspect “hated Islam, but he hated the Germans more”.

As the day passed, politicians, including Chancellor Olaf Scholz, came to lay flowers at the spontaneous memorial.

By the time Tino Chrupalla, the AfD’s co-leader, came, the crowd was filled with young people who had responded from all round east Germany to calls by the party’s youth wing on social media to attend a vigil.

The party, particularly strong in eastern Germany, came first or second in three regional votes this autumn, and hopes for more success in a national election in February.

Many of the gathered supporters wore symbols associated with neopaganism and other mystical movements associated with the far right.

One young man, who said he was from the AfD’s youth wing, wore an amulet depicting the hammer of the Norse god Thor.

“I’m a believer in the old gods,” he said, declining to give his name.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser expressed concern that the attack could be exploited by the far right, but said little could be done to prevent seemingly coordinated gatherings.

“We have freedom of assembly in this country,” she said, touring the scene of the attack. “We have to do everything possible to make sure the attack isn’t misused by either side.”

Here is what we know so far about the man who was arrested as the suspected driver in the attack on Friday.

Life in Germany

The suspect is a 50-year-old from Saudi Arabia with permanent residence status in Germany, where he has been living for almost two decades.

The suspect has not been named by authorities. Multiple German media reports refer to him as Taleb A.

The suspect had worked as a psychiatrist at a specialist rehabilitation clinic for criminals with addictions in Bernburg since March 2020. “Since the end of October 2024, he has been absent due to holiday and illness,” the facility said in a statement.

He lived on a quiet street near the centre of Bernburg, a town of 30,000, south of Magdeburg, in a three-storey apartment block.

Possible motive

German authorities said early on that the suspect was not known to authorities as an Islamist.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser declined to comment on the suspect’s motives for the attack or political affiliations but said his Islamophobia was “clear to see”.

The local prosecutor in Magdeburg, Horst Nopens, said a possible factor in the attack may have been the suspect’s “dissatisfaction with the treatment of Saudi refugees in Germany” but added that the motive remained unclear.

Far-right sympathies

Taleb A. appeared in a number of media interviews in 2019 reporting on his activist work helping Saudi Arabians who had turned their back on Islam to flee to Europe.

In a BBC documentary from July 2019, the man speaks about founding the platform wearesaudis.net after he became an atheist and claimed asylum in Germany.

He is a fierce critic of Islam in these interviews, telling Germany’s FAZ newspaper in June that year: “There is no good Islam.”

His account on social media platform X, verified by Reuters, indicated support for the far-right, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD), as well as for the American billionaire Elon Musk, who has criticised German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and expressed support for the AfD.

Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Thousands gather in Magdeburg for memorial to victims of car attack )

Also on site :

• Smoke Signal? Motorcyclist Records Mysterious Black Ring Hovering In Sky Over Kansas (WATCH)
• Defiant Serbian leader sends message to EU from Red Square (VIDEO)
• James Duggar Makes Bold Confession About Illegal Activity in Super Rare Interview