The death toll from the attack on a Christmas market in Germany has risen to 5 people

The Germans mourned on Saturday Victims of an apparent attack Authorities say a doctor stormed a crowded outdoor Christmas market, killing five people and wounding 200 others, shaking the public’s sense of safety at what could have been a time of joy and wonder.

The alleged attack on Friday evening in Magdeburg, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) west of Berlin, killed a 9-year-old and four adults and injured 41 people so seriously that authorities warned the death toll could rise.

Magdeburg commemorated the tragedy on Saturday by ringing church bells at 7:04 p.m., the exact time of the attack in the city with a population of about 240,000 people.

The driver, a 50-year-old doctor who immigrated from Saudi Arabia in 2006, surrendered to police at the scene. He is being investigated on five counts of suspected murder and 205 counts of suspected attempted murder, Public Prosecutor Horst Walter Nobbens said at a press conference.

Among other things, investigators are looking into whether the motive behind the attack was the suspect’s dissatisfaction with the way Germany treats Saudi refugees, Nobbens said.

“There is no place more peaceful and joyful than a Christmas market,” said Chancellor Olaf Schulz. “What a terrible act to injure and kill so many people there so brutally.”

Although Nobbins mentioned the angle on the treatment of Saudi immigrants, authorities said on Saturday that they still did not know why the suspect was driving his black BMW into the crowded market.

Police have not publicly announced the name of the suspect. But many German media identified him as student A. His last name was withheld in line with privacy laws, and he stated that he specializes in psychiatry and psychotherapy.

The suspect described himself as a former Muslim, and appeared to have been an active user of the social media platform

He also accused the German authorities of failing to do enough to combat what he called “the Islamization of Europe.”

The violence shocked Germany and Magdeburg, the capital of the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, bringing the city’s mayor to tears and spoiling the ancient German tradition of Christmas markets. This has prompted many other communities to cancel 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.

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Germany has been hit by a series of extremist 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 came eight years after an Islamic extremist drove a truck through a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing 13 people and wounding many others. The attacker was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.

Chancellor Schulz and Interior Minister Nancy Wieser traveled to Magdeburg on Saturday, and a memorial service was scheduled to be held in the city’s cathedral in the evening. Visser ordered flags on federal buildings across the country to be flown at half-staff.

Verified footage from a bystander distributed by the German News Agency (DPA) showed the suspect being arrested at a tram stop in the middle of the road. A nearby police officer, pointing his gun at the man, shouted at him as he lay on the ground, his head cocked slightly upward. Other officers gathered around the suspect and arrested him.

Thi Linh Chi Nguyen, a 34-year-old Vietnamese manicurist whose salon is located in a mall across from the Christmas market, was talking on the phone during a break when she heard loud noises that she thought were fireworks. Then she saw a car driving through the market at high speed. People screamed and the car threw a child into the air.

Trembling as she described what she saw, she recalled seeing the car explode out of the market and turn right onto Ernst Reuter Allee, then stop at the tram station where the suspect was arrested.

The number of wounded was enormous.

“My husband and I helped them for two hours. He ran back to his house and grabbed as many blankets as he could because they didn’t have enough to cover the wounded. It was so cold,” she said.

The market itself was still cordoned off on Saturday with red and white tape and police vehicles, while armed officers guarded every entrance. Some thermal protection blankets are still lying in the street.

Molson reported from Berlin and Gera from Warsaw, Poland.

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