Germans mourn the killing of five people and the wounding of 200 others in an attack on a Christmas market Crime news

A memorial service was held at Magdeburg Cathedral, a city rocked by the fatal accident.

Germans gathered in Magdeburg to mourn the victims of a car-ramming attack in the eastern city that killed at least five people and injured 200 others.

A doctor stormed a crowded outdoor Christmas market on Friday evening, killing four adults and a nine-year-old child, and wounding 41 people seriously enough for the death toll to likely rise, authorities said.

Church bells in the city rang at 7:04 pm (18:04 GMT) on Saturday, the exact time for Attack The previous evening.

A memorial service was held in the city’s cathedral, intended mainly for relatives of the victims, as well as emergency responders and invited guests, including German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Those who were not allowed to attend Mass gathered outside the church to watch it on a large screen.

Several hundred people also gathered in the city’s central square, some laying flowers and lighting candles.

The crowds also included those carrying banners bearing right-wing extremist slogans.

The violence shocked the German city, which has a population of about 240,000 and is located 130 kilometers west of Berlin.

This has led to many other places in Germany canceling their weekend Christmas markets as a precaution and in solidarity with the loss of Magdeburg.

Berlin has kept its many markets open but has increased police presence.

The investigation into the motive continues

The suspect, a 50-year-old Saudi immigrant, described himself as an activist critical of Islam, and surrendered himself to the police at the scene.

The suspect is being investigated on five counts of murder and 205 counts of attempted murder of a suspect, Public Prosecutor Horst Walter Nobbens said in a press conference.

Nobbens said investigators are looking into whether the motive behind the attack was the doctor’s dissatisfaction with the way Germany treats Saudi refugees.

Police have not publicly named the suspect, but several German media outlets identified him as Student A and reported that he specialized in psychiatry and psychotherapy.

Posts on Suspect

A Saudi source told the agency that Saudi Arabia warned the German authorities about the suspect after he published “extremist” views on his account that threaten peace and security.

The Welt newspaper reported, citing security sources, that a risk assessment conducted last year by German federal and state criminal investigators concluded that the man did not pose a “specific danger.”

Germany has been hit by a number of attacks in recent years, including a knife attack that killed three people and injured eight at a festival in the western city of Solingen in August.

Friday’s attack also came eight years after a man driving a truck plowed into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing 13 people and injuring many others. The attacker was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.