BERLIN (AP) — A automotive drove into folks at a Christmas market within the jap German metropolis of Magdeburg on Friday. Officials stated they suspected it was an assault and that folks had been injured, nevertheless it was not instantly clear what number of had been harmed.
The driver of the automotive was arrested, German information company dpa reported, citing unidentified authorities officers within the state of Saxony-Anhalt. Regional authorities spokesperson Matthias Schuppe and metropolis spokesperson Michael Reif stated they suspected it was a deliberate act.
Reif stated there have been “quite a few injured” however didn’t give a exact determine.
“The footage are horrible,” he stated. “My info is {that a} automotive drove into the Christmas market guests, however I can’t but say from what course and the way far.”
Footage from the scene of a cordoned-off a part of the market confirmed particles on the bottom.
“This is a horrible occasion, significantly now within the days earlier than Christmas,” Saxony-Anhalt governor Reiner Haseloff stated. Haseloff informed dpa that he was on his solution to Magdeburg however couldn’t instantly give any info on victims or what was behind the incident.
Magdeburg, which is west of Berlin, is the state capital of Saxony-Anhalt and has about 240,000 inhabitants.
The suspected assault got here a day after the eight anniversary of an assault on a Christmas market in Berlin. On Dec. 19, 2016, an Islamic extremist attacker plowed by way of a crowd of Christmas market-goers with a truck, leaving 13 folks lifeless and injuring dozens extra. The attacker was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser had stated late final month that there have been no concrete indications of a hazard to Christmas markets this 12 months, however that it was clever to be vigilant.
