The shuttered Christmas market the day after a the attack that left five people dead in Magdeburg, Germany, on Saturday. Photograph: Omer Messinger/Getty ImagesIn the bleak Magdeburg midwinter, police tape fluttered beside torn tinsel at what, 24 hours earlier, had been a bustlingcity of 240,000, people clustered in groups and gazed in shock at where a black SUV sliced through an alley of flashing lights and chat, flinging bodies left and right.
Johannes Rörig arrived 10 minutes after the attack and saw a “scene of horror”. His partner, three huts away from the passing car, was at home and still in shock. At one end of the street – the entrance to the market – stood a row of large, heavy concrete barriers, painted red and green and looking like giant Lego blocks. Locals pointed to a car-sized gap between two, through which the vehicle may have squeezed just after 7pm local time. The black SUV raced around 400m through the crowd, taking a sharp corner and leaving a trail of bodies.
Members of the public lay flowers at the makeshift memorial near the site of the attack. Photograph: Omer Messinger/Getty Images Gustav Schäfer, drummer with the popular German band Tokio Hotel, posted on Instagram that he and friends had been at the market minutes before the attack. German chancellor Olaf Scholz and regional elected officials at the scene in Magdeburg on Saturday. Photograph: Jesco Denzel/Bundesregierung via Getty Images
Amid early speculation of an Islamist motive, echoing the Berlin market attack eight years ago, Saturday morning brought a surprising twist. In a series of posts he liked and repeated key AfD talking points on asylum and expressed praise for X owner Elon Musk. On Friday he praised the AfD as the only party capable of “saving Germany”.
Three months earlier, according to messages seen by Die Welt daily, he posted that “with 100 per cent certainty, revenge is coming. Germany will have to pay the price. A huge price”. “I went along and pretended to be Muslim,” he said, but dropped the charade after his asylum application was successful and he was granted permanent residency.