Germany: Magdeburg attacker identified as 50-year-old Saudi national

MAGDEBURG: A 50-year-old man from Saudi Arabia has been identified as the suspect following a car attack into a crowd in Magdeburg, Germany on Saturday.  

According to the CNN, the suspect has been living in Germany since 2006 and holds a permanent residency permit. No “explosive device” was found in the suspect’s vehicle.

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Regional officials believe he has acted alone in an attack that has left at least two dead, and over 15 sustaining serious injuries.

The attack took place at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, about 160 kilometres west of Berlin, Germany’s capital.

The suspect was soon arrested, with local authorities increasing security measures at surrounding markets.

According to reports, local hospitals were overwhelmed as number of injured people hovers around 68 so far.

The car attack in Magdeburg, Germany is one of several in several years to plague Europe. A truck ploughed into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, France in 2016. The incident killed 86 people.

France would witness a second attack when a driver drove his vehicle into a crowd in Bordeaux, injuring several. No one was killed.

Germany also experienced a similar attack in 2016 when a truck hit a crowd in a Christmas market in Berlin. 12 people perished in the attack.

Similar cases have been reported in Moscow (Russia), Stockholm (Sweden) and London (United Kingdom) in 2017 alone, resulting in deaths of 13 people altogether.

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North American has similarly suffered several attacks, with a white supremacist ramming his car into a crowd of counter-protestors in Charlottesville, United States in 2017.

Canada witnessed a similar attack in 2018, when a man drove his van onto a footpath, killing 10 pedestrians.