A Saudi man has been arrested by German police following a car-ramming attack at a Christmas market in the eastern city of Magdeburg on Friday (20 December).
The man crashed a vehicle through a crowd of revellers at a high speed, causing great devastation.
Rescue services said at least two people have been killed and more than 60 injured in an attack, which occurred in the city of Magdeburg, located about 130 kilometers southwest of Berlin.
The suspect is a Saudi medical doctor, 50 years old, who is from Saxony-Anhalt.
"We have arrested the perpetrator, a man from Saudi Arabia, a doctor who has been in Germany since 2006," regional premier Reiner Haseloff told reporters, calling the attack a "catastrophe" for the city and the country.
"From what we currently know he was a lone attacker so we don't think there is any further danger," he added, news agency AFP reported.
Authorities said the vehicle drove "at least 400 meters across the Christmas market," killing many people in its wake near the central town hall square.
Emergency responders, including ambulances and fire trucks, rushed to the scene immediately after the attack to give first aid to the wounded.
According to Der Spiegel, citing security sources, a black BMW sped through the market at high speed just after 7.00 pm local time (1800 GMT), when the area was crowded with revellers.
Haseloff said the Saudi man had driven a rented car with Munich licence plates into the Christmas market.
Magdeburg's city administration shared on Facebook that 15 people were critically injured, 37 sustained serious injuries, and 16 suffered minor injuries.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has expressed grave concern on X, saying, "The reports from Magdeburg raise the worst fears."
"The thoughts are with the victims and their families. We stand by their side and by the side of the people of Magdeburg. My thanks go to the dedicated rescue workers in these anxious hours," he added.
It brought back memories of a 2016 jihadist attack in which a Tunisian man drove a lorry into a Berlin Christmas market, killing 13 people in Germany's deadliest terror attack of its kind.
The Islamic State group later claimed responsibility for the terror attack.
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