BERLIN (AP) — A automotive drove into other folks at a Christmas marketplace within the japanese German town of Magdeburg on Friday. Officers mentioned they suspected it used to be an assault and that folks had been injured, but it surely used to be now not in an instant transparent what number of had been harmed.
The driving force of the auto used to be arrested, German information company dpa reported, bringing up unidentified executive officers within the state of Saxony-Anhalt. Regional executive spokesperson Matthias Schuppe and town spokesperson Michael Reif mentioned they suspected it used to be a planned act.Reif mentioned there have been “a large number of injured” however didn’t give an exact determine.“The photographs are horrible,” he mentioned. “My data is {that a} automotive drove into the Christmas marketplace guests, however I will be able to’t but say from what course and the way a long way.”Pictures from the scene of a cordoned-off a part of the marketplace confirmed particles at the flooring.“This can be a horrible match, specifically now within the days earlier than Christmas,” Saxony-Anhalt governor Reiner Haseloff mentioned. Haseloff instructed dpa that he used to be on his option to Magdeburg however couldn’t in an instant give any data on sufferers or what used to be in the back of the incident.
Magdeburg, which is west of Berlin, is the state capital of Saxony-Anhalt and has about 240,000 population.
The suspected assault got here an afternoon after the 8 anniversary of an assault on a Christmas marketplace in Berlin. On Dec. 19, 2016, an Islamic extremist attacker plowed thru a crowd of Christmas market-goers with a truck, leaving 13 other folks lifeless and injuring dozens extra. The attacker used to be killed days later in a shootout in Italy.German Inside Minister Nancy Faeser had mentioned past due closing month that there have been no concrete indications of a threat to Christmas markets this 12 months, however that it used to be smart to be vigilant.
