A driver rammed a car into a large crowd of revellers at a Christmas market in central Germany on Friday evening (20 Dec), killing at least two people and injuring more than 60 before he was arrested, authorities said.

One of the dead was a young child, said Reiner Haseloff, premier of the state of Saxony-Anhalt. The incident took place in Magdeburg, the state capital, which is 150 kilometres (93 miles) west of Berlin.

"It is a catastrophe for the city of Magdeburg, for the state and for Germany in general," Haseloff said, adding that the death toll could rise given the severity of some of the injuries.

Haseloff described the attacker as a 50-year-old male doctor from Saudi Arabia with permanent residency in Germany, where he had lived for almost two decades.

"As things stand at the moment, we are talking about a lone offender, which means that there is no further danger to the city because we were able to arrest him."

The motive was unclear. The suspect was not known to German authorities as an Islamist, according to local broadcaster MDR.

Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry condemned the attack.

Related

---