Saudi doctor’s social media post surfaces as death toll climbs
A disgusting social media post from the alleged man behind the Christmas market ramming has surfaced. WARNING: Distressing
WARNING: Distressing
A foul social media post made by the alleged killer of at least four people in a Christmas market ramming in eastern Germany has surfaced.
The 50-year-old Saudi doctor who has lived in Germany since 2006 ploughed through crowds at a Christmas market in Magdeburg on Friday, local time, injuring up to 200 people.
It has now been revealed that the psychiatric doctor, who was a permanent resisdent of Germany, made a disturbing post to X only a few months ago.
“Is there a path to justice in Germany without bombing a German embassy or slaughtering German citizens indiscriminately?” the man, identified by local media as Taleb A, wrote on August 21.
“I have been looking for this peaceful way since January 2019 and I have not found it. If anyone knows it, please guide me.”
Hours before the attack, he posted videos claiming German authorities had been opening his mail and stealing things, including a USB stick.
“I consider the Germans, as citizens, responsible for the persecution I am facing,” he claimed in one video.
“Currently in this country, the nation that is actively criminally chasing Islam critics is the German nation,” he claimed in another.
His X bio read: “Saudi Military Opposition. Germany chases female Saudi asylum seekers, inside and outside Germany, to destroy their lives. Germany wants to islamise Europe”.
He also appeared in a 2019 interview with the BBC World Service and spoke about how he helped asylum seekers “escape” from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region.
“We have arrested the perpetrator, it is a man from Saudi Arabia … a doctor who has been in Germany since 2006,” state premier of Saxony-Anhalt Reiner Haseloff told reporters at the scene.
BREAKING: According to reports from UAE and Saudi Arabian ð• users, the perpetrator of the Christmas market attack in Magdeburg, Germany is a fugitive from Saudi Arabia.
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) December 20, 2024
The German government refused to extradite him despite requests from the Saudi government, citing human… https://t.co/w6vZYXEiOYpic.twitter.com/0p5O4IGh3K
He lived in Bernburg, some 40 kilometres (24 miles) south of Magdeburg, and had “a permanent residence permit”, Saxony-Anhalt’s regional interior minister Tamara Zieschang said alongside Haseloff.
Zieschang - who called Friday “one of the darkest days for Saxony-Anhalt and also for the state capital Magdeburg” - said the suspect appeared to be a lone attacker.
“According to our current information, he acted alone. There is no information on other perpetrators. Everything else is the subject of further investigations,” she said.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was expected to visit Magdeburg on Saturday, local time.
A spokesperson for the city of Magdeburg says all hospitals in the area were preparing for a “mass casualty event”, according to Reuters news agency.
The Magdeburg city administration said in a Facebook post that 15 people were critically injured, with 37 people suffering serious injuries and 16 sustaining light injuries.
Police said the vehicle drove “at least 400 metres across the Christmas market” leaving behind a trail of bloodied casualties at the city’s central town hall square.
Ambulances and fire engines rushed to the chaotic site, which was doused in blue emergency lights with sirens wailing, with badly injured people being treated as they lay on the ground or rushed off to hospitals.
Cries and screams could be heard as around 100 police, medics and the fire service officers deployed to the litter-strewn market decorated with Christmas trees and festive lights.
“The pictures are terrible,” said city spokesman Michael Reif.
NTV television showed ambulances and fire engines at the site, which was doused in blue light with sirens wailing, as badly injured people were being rushed off to hospitals and others were treated as they lay on the ground.
“It was a real chaotic situation,” a reporter from German broadcaster MDR told the BBC.
“We saw blood on the floor, we saw people sitting beside each other and having golden and silver foils around them,” said Lars Frohmüller.
“And we saw many doctors trying to keep people warm and help them with their injuries,” he added.
“Everywhere were ambulances, there were police, there were a lot of firefighters.”
“You couldn’t hear the car”
One witness said her boyfriend was ripped out of her arms when the car ploughed through the crowd.
“He was hit and pulled away from my side. It was terrible,” Nadine, 32, told German newspaper Bild.
“Nobody even screamed. You couldn’t hear the car either.”
She said her boyfriend, Marco, 39, sustained injuries to his leg and head.
“We don’t know which hospital he went to. The uncertainty is unbearable.”
Footage shared by German broadcaster MDR captured the moment police arrested the suspect outside the Christmas market.
In the video, police can be head shouting at the man to lie down on the ground as they point their guns towards him.
News weekly Der Spiegel, citing security sources, said that a black BMW had barrelled through the crowd at high speed just after 7pm local time when the market was filled with revellers.
Haseloff said the Saudi man had driven a rented car with Munich licence plates into the Christmas market.
Die Welt daily reported that a piece of luggage was found on the passenger seat and it was “unclear whether there may be an explosive device in it”, adding that “the authorities have not yet ruled out this scenario”.
Football club pays tribute
Magdeburg football team have paid tribute to those caught up in the attack, which took place at the same time they were playing a fixture away against Fortuna Dusseldorf.
During the game, news of the incident was broadcast at the Merkur Spiel-Arena on video screens, stating a car had driven into a crowd at Magdeburg’s Christmas market.
After the game ended, Magdeburg players stood together in a line and observed a minute’ silence.
“FCM’s thoughts are with those affected by the terrible events at the Magdeburg Christmas market,” the club wrote in a statement on its website.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz wrote on X that “the reports from Magdeburg raise the worst fears”.
“My 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.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz would visit the scene on Saturday, Haseloff said. Haseloff said he and Scholz would discuss the “necessary measures” to be taken next.
“We now need to work through this and draw long-term consequences,” Haseloff said.
The bloody carnage recalled a 2016 jihadist attack in which a Tunisian man driving a lorry killed 12 people in a Christmas market in Berlin.
A 13th victim died later having suffered serious injuries in the assault, claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group.
Public warned about Christmas markets
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has recently called on people to be vigilant at Christmas markets, although she said that authorities had not received any specific threats.
Domestic security service the Office for the Protection of the Constitution had warned it considers Christmas markets to be an “ideologically suitable target for Islamist-motivated people”.
Germany has in recent times seen a series of suspected Islamist-motivated knife attacks.
Three people were killed and eight wounded in a stabbing spree at a street festival in the western city of Solingen in August.
Police arrested a Syrian suspect over the attack that was claimed by IS. In June, a policeman was killed in a knife attack in Mannheim, with an Afghan national held as the main suspect.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier wrote that “the anticipation of a peaceful Christmas was suddenly interrupted” but he cautioned that “the background to the terrible deed has yet been clarified”.
The leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), Alice Weidel, which has focused on jihadist attacks in its campaign against immigrants, wrote on X “when will this madness stop?” French President Emmanuel Macron said he was “profoundly shocked” the attack and that he “shares the pain of the German people”.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also said she was “deeply shocked by the brutal attack on the defenceless crowd”, adding: “Violence must have no place in our democracies.” Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sanchez said he was “shocked” by the “terrible attack”.
— with AFP
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