A memorial service has taken place in Magdeburg, Germany, for the victims of a Christmas market assault.

At the least 5 individuals have been killed and greater than 200 others injured when a automobile ploughed into crowds buying on Friday night.

Amongst these attending the service within the metropolis’s cathedral was Chancellor Olaf Scholz, inside minister Nancy Faeser and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

In a submit on X, Mr Scholz described it as a “shifting second of compassion and solidarity for a deeply affected metropolis”.

“The entire of Germany stands in these darkish hours with the individuals of Magdeburg,” he wrote.

Magdeburg marked the tragedy on Saturday with the cathedral bells tolling at 7.04pm native time (6.04pm UK time), precisely 24 hours after the assault.

German soccer additionally paid tribute to the victims with silences earlier than Bundesliga video games on Saturday night.

Earlier, whereas visiting the scene of the atrocity, Mr Scholz mentioned: “There isn’t a extra peaceable and cheerful place than a Christmas market.

“What a horrible act it’s to injure and kill so many individuals there with such brutality.”

Learn extra:
What we find out about assault to date
Magdeburg in shock because it tries to make sense of the mindless

Younger youngster among the many useless

4 adults and a nine-year-old youngster have been killed when a black BMW was pushed into individuals on the Christmas market.

Of these injured, 41 are mentioned to be critically harm, and authorities have warned the variety of useless might rise.

In the meantime, a person is being questioned by police after being arrested on the scene.

He has been named by German media as Taleb A, along with his surname being withheld according to privateness legal guidelines, though the identify has not been confirmed by German authorities.

Saudi suspect being held

The suspect is a 50-year-old Saudi citizen who labored as a health care provider and arrived in Germany in 2006, premier of Saxony-Anhalt state Reiner Haseloff mentioned.

Taleb A is being investigated for 5 counts of suspected homicide and 205 counts of suspected tried homicide, prosecutor Horst Walter Nopens mentioned.

The motive for the atrocity will not be but identified.

Investigators are trying into whether or not the assault might have been motivated by the suspect’s dissatisfaction with how Germany treats Saudi refugees, Mr Nopens added.

Inside minister Nancy Faeser instructed reporters it was “clear” the suspect was “Islamophobic”.

Residents in Magdeburg instructed Sky’s Europe correspondent Siobhan Robbins they’re “shocked” and “traumatised” by the assault.

One lady mentioned she “cannot discover phrases to explain how traumatised we’re”.

“We’d like loads of time to course of what occurred,” she mentioned.

‘Present solidarity’

She added she wished to attend the memorial service to “present solidarity” with others within the metropolis and “really feel collective help”.

“In such a tragedy the one factor that may assist us to soak up and to course of every part is to be round one another and to indicate our solidarity, not simply with phrases however actions.”

Slender escape

Andrea Reis, 57, and her daughter Julia, 34, had been on the market on Friday night and had a slim escape.

They might have been within the path of the automobile however Julia had wished to maintain strolling across the market moderately than cease to eat.

Andrea mentioned: “It was the horrible sounds, kids calling ‘mama, papa’, ‘assist me’ – they are going spherical in my head now.”

Though many individuals went to the location on Saturday with candles to mourn the victims, a number of hundred far-right protesters gathered in a central sq. in Magdeburg with a banner that learn “remigration”, reported information company dpa.