Numerous people were injured on Friday after a car drove into a crowd of revellers at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, a city spokesperson told local broadcaster MDR.
MDR, citing local police, said at least one person had died.
The spokesperson for Magdeburg, located some 150 kilometres (93 miles) south-west of Berlin, said the incident appeared to be a deliberate attack.
“The initial assessment is that there was an attack on the Christmas market,” spokesperson Michael Reif told MDR.
“There are numerous casualties. The fire brigade and police are on the scene and are treating the injured.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said reports indicated something bad had happened.
“My thoughts are with the victims and their families,” he wrote in a post on social media platform X.
MDR reported that the suspected driver of the car had been arrested, with police saying it was not yet clear whether the attacker had acted alone.
Police and the local government’s spokesperson were not available for comment.
A video posted on social media from a position above the market shows a car driving at speed through a crowd walking between two rows of market stalls. People can be seen knocked to the ground and running away. Reuters was able to verify the location, with the trees, outline and design of the buildings matching file and satellite imagery of the area.
“I estimate there are at least 20 ambulances here, a lot of firefighters, and I can see the police helicopter circling in the sky,” an MDR reporter said during a live broadcast, adding that there were a lot of armed police on site.
Eight years ago, a truck driven by Anis Amri, a failed Tunisian asylum seeker with Islamist links, crashed into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people and injuring dozens of others.
REUTERS