MAGDEBURG and LONDON — A judge on Saturday issued a murder warrant for the suspect accused of killing five people by allegedly ramming a car into a Christmas market in Magdeburg, police said Sunday.
A German official in the city of Magdeburg separately confirmed to ABC News that the suspect, Taleb Al-Abdulmohsen, 50, who is originally from Saudi Arabia, appeared before a German judge in Magdeburg on Saturday. A local prosecutor said during a news conference Saturday that the suspect's first name was “Taleb,” but police have not otherwise publicly identified him.
A judge ordered “pretrial detention for five murders and multiple attempted murders as well as serious bodily harm,” the Magdeburg police said on Sunday morning.
Candles and flowers stand outside the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, early Sunday, Dec. 22, 2024, after a car drove into a crowd at the market on Friday, Dec. 20.
Sebastian Kahnert/AP
The police statement listed the age and gender of the five people killed. These were a nine-year-old boy and four women aged 45, 52, 67 and 75.
According to Saxony-Anhalt Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff, at least 200 more people were injured on Friday when a car plowed into festive market-goers in the eastern German city, about 120 kilometers west of the capital Berlin.
According to police, at least 41 of those injured in the attack are in serious condition. Your life is still in danger, said Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
A suspect, a 50-year-old doctor from Saudi Arabia, was arrested, said Haselhoff. The man has lived in Germany since 2006. A rental car was used in the attack, the minister said.
A police officer guards the Christmas market in Magdeburg on Sunday morning, December 22, 2024, where a car drove into a crowd on Friday evening.
Michael Probst/AP
The first emergency call came in at 7:02 p.m. local time and the driver was stopped within three minutes of the attack, according to a police official. The police assume that the suspect entered through the area left for emergency vehicles.
Police said they believe the suspect acted alone. The prosecutor said they were still trying to determine the motive behind the attack.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told reporters on Saturday that it was “clear to see” that the suspect had “Islamophobic views.”
Police said the suspect underwent physical and psychological examinations, but the results are not yet available to police.
Magdeburg's Christmas market will remain closed for the rest of the season, police told reporters on Saturday.
ABC News' Victoria Beaule, Emily Shapiro, Aaron Katersky, Meredith Deliso, David Brennan and Nadine El-Bawab contributed to this report.
