At least five people have died and hundreds more are injured – some critically – after a man driving a black BMW plowed into a crowded Christmas market in East Germany Friday evening.The suspect – a Saudi doctor – intentionally drove into a market teeming with holiday shoppers in what police are calling an attack. He was detained on scene. The death toll rose from two to five and more than 200 people in total were injured, the state governor, Reiner Haseloff, told reporters.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that nearly 40 of them 'are so seriously injured that we must be very worried about them.''There is no more peaceful and cheerful place than a Christmas market,' Scholz said. 'What a terrible act it is to injure and kill so many people there with such brutality.'Neurosurgeon Mahmoud Elenbaby said some 80 patients were brought to Magdeburg’s university hospital on Friday night.'We managed to stabilize most of them, but many are still in intensive care, and some are also in critical condition,' Elenbaby told The Associated Press.Authorities have not formally named the suspect, saying only that he is a Saudi doctor who acted alone.Local media say he is 50-year-old Taleb A, a psychiatry and psychotherapy specialist who has lived in Germany since 2006 and practiced medicine in Bernburg, about 25 miles south of Magdeburg, officials said.Taleb’s X account describes him as a former Muslim. It is filled with tweets and retweets focusing on anti-Islam themes and criticism of the religion, while sharing congratulatory notes to Muslims who left the faith.He was critical of German authorities, saying they had failed to do enough to combat the 'Islamism of Europe.'He has also voiced support for the far-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.Some described Taleb as an activist who helped Saudi women flee their homeland. Recently, he seemed focused on his theory that German authorities have been targeting Saudi asylum-seeker