Who is the suspect in the Magdeburg market attack, Talib Al-Abdul Mohsen? What we know
On Friday evening, a man drove his car into a crowd of shoppers at the Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg.
The attack killed five people, including a nine-year-old boy, and injured more than 200 others, many of them in critical condition.
A judge ordered the pretrial detention of a 50-year-old man arrested on suspicion of carrying out the attack.
Police believe he acted alone.
How did the attack develop?
At 19:02 local time (18:02 GMT), the first call was made to emergency services.
The caller reported that a car had run into a crowd of people at the downtown Christmas market.
Police said the caller assumed it was an accident, but it quickly became clear that was not the case.
Police said that the driver used traffic lights to close the road and enter a pedestrian crossing, which led him through an entry point to the market that was designated for emergency vehicles, resulting in the injury of a number of people on the road.
Unverified footage on social media showed the driver speeding through a crosswalk between Christmas stalls.
Eyewitnesses described jumping out of the car’s path, running away, or hiding.
The driver then returned to the road he entered and had to stop in traffic, police said. Officers already at the market were able to arrest the driver and arrest him here.
The footage showed armed police confronting and arresting a man who could be seen lying on the ground next to a parked car – a black BMW with extensive damage to the front bumper and windshield.
Police said the entire incident was over in three minutes.
Who are the victims?
A nine-year-old boy and four women aged 45, 52, 67 and 75 were confirmed dead in the attack.
More than 200 people were injured, at least 41 of them in critical condition.
A previous toll had indicated that two people were killed and 68 others injured, but it was revised to much higher numbers on Saturday morning.
None of the victims have been identified yet.
Who is the suspect?
The BBC has learned that the suspect has been identified in local media reports as Talib al-Abd al-Muhsin.
He is a 50-year-old Saudi-born psychiatrist who lives in Bernburg, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Magdeburg.
Police say he has been remanded in custody on suspicion of five counts of murder, multiple attempted murders and grievous bodily harm.
The motive behind the attack remains unclear, but authorities stated that they believe he carried out the attack alone.
Al-Abdul Mohsen arrived in Germany in 2006 and in 2016 was recognized as a refugee.
The suspect was running a website aimed at helping other ex-Muslims flee persecution in their Gulf homelands, and the BBC conducted an interview on the subject in 2019.
German Interior Minister Nancy Weiser told reporters that it was “clear to see” that the suspect held “anti-Islamic” views.
On social media, he is an outspoken critic of Islam, and has promoted conspiracy theories regarding an alleged plot by German authorities to Islamize Europe.
He also expressed sympathy on social media for Germany’s far-right political party, Alternative for Germany, which retweeted tweets from the party’s leader and a far-right activist.
Magdeburg Police Chief Tom Oliver Langhans said police had previously conducted an assessment of whether the suspect might pose a potential threat, “but that discussion was one year ago.”
Visser told the German newspaper Bild that investigators will examine “in detail” what information the authorities had about Al-Abd Al-Muhsin in the past and how he was investigated.
The German Office for Migration and Refugees announced in a post on social media that it had filed a complaint about the suspect, and that it “took it seriously,” but since the office is not an investigative body, it referred the complainant to other authorities.
It is believed that one of the information received by the authorities came from Saudi authorities.
A source close to the Saudi government told the BBC that it had sent four official notices known as “verbal notes” to the German authorities, warning them of what it said were the “extremely extremist views” held by Al-Abdul Mohsen.
However, a counter-terrorism expert told the BBC that the Saudis may have been waging a disinformation campaign to discredit someone who tried to help young Saudi women seek asylum in Germany.
The head of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), Holger Münch, told public broadcaster ZDF that his office received notification from Saudi Arabia in November 2023. He said local police had taken appropriate investigative measures, but the matter was not specific.
He added that the suspect “made various contacts with the authorities, insulted them and made threats, but he was not known for acts of violence.”
ReutersWhat did those responsible say about the attack?
“The reports from Magdeburg raise the worst fears,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on the social media platform X.
Ronnie Krug, Magdeburg city councilor for public order, said the Christmas market would remain closed and that “Christmas in Magdeburg is over,” German public broadcaster MDR reported.
This sentiment was echoed on the market’s website, which in the aftermath of the attack showed nothing but a black screen with words of mourning, declaring that the market was over.
In a statement on Channel X, the Saudi government expressed its “solidarity with the German people and the families of the victims,” and “confirmed its rejection of violence.”
British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he was “horrified by the horrific attack in Magdeburg”, adding that his thoughts were with “the victims, their families and all those affected” in a post on Channel X on Friday evening.
