Nine-year-old among five killed in attack on German Christmas market

A nine-year-old child and four adults have been killed after a car drove into a crowd at a Christmas market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg.

More than 200 people were injured - at least 41 critically - in the attack on Friday evening.

A black BMW SUV ploughed 400 metres through the crowded market in an attack that lasted about three minutes.

The suspect has been named in local media as Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, a 50-year-old Saudi citizen who arrived in Germany in 2006 and had worked as a doctor.

Prosecutor Horst Walter Nopens said on Saturday that the investigation was ongoing but suggested the background to the crime "could have been disgruntlement with the way Saudi Arabian refugees are treated in Germany".

The suspected attacker has no known links to Islamist extremism. His social media and posts appear to suggest he had been critical of Islam.

A source close to the Saudi government told the BBC it sent four official notifications known as "Notes Verbal" to German authorities, warning them about what they said were "the very extreme views" held by al-Abdulmohsen.

The source, who asked not to be named, said these notifications were ignored.

However, another experienced counter-terrorism expert said the Saudis may be mounting a disinformation campaign to discredit someone who tried to help young Saudi women seek asylum in Germany.

Al-Abdulmohsen is currently being questioned and prosecutors expect to charge him with murder and attempted murder in due course, the head of the local prosecutor's office said on Saturday.

Reiner Haseloff, the premier of Saxony-Anhalt state, said a preliminary investigation suggested the alleged attacker was acting alone.

City officials said around 100 police, medics and firefighters, as well as 50 rescue service personnel, rushed to the scene shortly after 19:00 local time on Friday.

Al-Abdulmohsen is thought to have driven into the market through an entry point which was reserved for emergency vehicles, police said.

The suspect is a psychiatrist who lived in Bernburg, around 40km (25 miles) south of Magdeburg.

Originally from Saudi Arabia, al-Abdulmohsen arrived in Germany in 2006 and in 2016 was recognised as a refugee.

He ran a website that aimed to help other former Muslims flee persecution in their Gulf homelands.

On Saturday evening, a memorial service was held for victims of the attack at Magdeburg Cathedral.

The service was attended by families of the victims, emergency workers and government officials, including German chancellor Olaf Scholz.

During a visit to the market earlier on Saturday, Scholz described the attack as a "dreadful tragedy" as "so many people were injured and killed with such brutality" in a place that is supposed to be "joyful".

He told reporters that there were serious concerns for those who had been critically injured and that "all resources" will be allocated to investigating the suspect behind the attack.

Witnesses described jumping out of the car's path, fleeing or hiding during Friday's attack.

In an interview with German paper Bild, Nadine described being at the Christmas market with her boyfriend Marco when the car came speeding towards them.

"He was hit and pulled away from my side," the 32-year-old told the paper. "It was terrible."

Meanwhile, Lars Frohmüller, a reporter for German public broadcaster MDR, told BBC Radio 4's World Tonight he saw "blood on the floor" as well as "many doctors trying to keep people warm and help them with their injuries".

Friday's incident is not the first time people at a Christmas market have been attacked in Germany.

In 2016, Anis Amri, a Tunisian man who failed to gain asylum in Germany and had links to the so-called Islamic State (IS) group, drove a truck into crowds gathered at a church market in Berlin, killing 12 and injuring 49 others.

Two years later, a gunman opened fire on a Christmas market in the eastern French city of Strasbourg, killing five and injuring another 11 people. The gunman was shot dead by police two days later.

Only last month, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser talked about the need for "greater vigilance" at the highly popular markets but said there were no "concrete" indications of danger.

She also reportedly pointed to tougher laws on weapons in public spaces following a knife attack in Solingen, west Germany, in August in which three people died.

Additional reporting Frank Gardner.