German chancellor Olaf Scholz has condemned the “brutality” of an attack on a Christmas market that has left at least five dead.
Over 200 were also injured, 40 of them critically, after a Saudi doctor drove a BMW into the market teeming with holiday shoppers.
Authorities said the incident in the eastern city of Magdeburg was a deliberate attack.
A Northern Ireland security expert said it had the “hallmarks” of a lone wolf terrorist incident.
Mr Scholz visited the scene this morning. He laid a white rose at a memorial set up near where the attack happened.
Addressing the media, he spoke of the “brutality” of what has happened.
“There is no place that is happier and more peaceful than a Christmas market, and that’s why this is a terrible event,” he said.
“The entire country” stood in solidarity with the city of Magdeburg, he added.
Mr Scholz said 40 of the injured “are so seriously injured that we must be very worried about them”.
Police stand at the Christmas market in Magdeburg. (Hendrik Schmidt/dpa via AP)
Officials identified the suspect as a 50-year-old who has been living in Germany for nearly two decades and practising medicine there.
He was arrested on Friday evening at the scene of the attack as medical officials tended to the injured.
Describing himself as a former Muslim, the suspect shared dozens of tweets and retweets daily focusing on anti-Islam themes, criticising the religion and congratulating Muslims who left the faith.
He also accused German authorities of failing to do enough to combat what he said was the “Islamism of Europe”. Some described him as an activist who helped Saudi women flee their homeland. He has also voiced support for the far-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Recently, he seemed focused on his theory that German authorities have been targeting Saudi asylum seekers.
Speaking to Sky News, Stephen White, a former PSNI Assistant Chief Constable, said the suspect’s age, profession and country of origin “stand out as quite exceptional” compared to what might be expected of such an attack.
“I’m shocked and very saddened by what is an atrocious attack,” Mr White, who now works as a security consultant, said.
“Local people are saying it was a deliberate act, and therefore one can only assume that it was some sort of murderous attempt by the driver.
“What the motive is will obviously have to be assessed but at the minute it has the hallmarks of a lone wolf terrorist attack.”
Mr White said it was important not to “overreact” until the full facts emerge.
He added: ”If it is a terrorist act, and I use the word ‘if’ very deliberately, then it will have succeeded in the sense that there’ll be a reaction, perhaps overreaction, by the state and by the authorities as we lead up to Christmas, which is a very important part of the year for many people.
“It will be a shame that things are closed down and this may well have been in the the mind of the perpetrator.”
Officials at Belfast’s Christmas market expressed their sympathy.
In a statement on its social media page, the market said: “Following the horrific incident at the Christmas Market in Magdeburg, Germany, we wish to extend our deepest sympathies to those affected.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with those who have suffered loss or injury and our trading brothers and sisters.”
Blankets and chairs of injured people stand behind a barrier at Magdeburg’s Christmas market. (Jan Woitas/dpa via AP)
Magdeburg’s city councillor for public order, Ronni Krug, says the Christmas market will stay closed and that “Christmas in Magdeburg is over”.
Many world leaders have expressed grief over the attack. The US says it is “horrified”, and the French president says he’s “deeply shocked”
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he was “horrified by the atrocious attack in Magdeburg”.
“My thoughts are with the victims, their families and all those affected,” he wrote in a post on X.
“We stand with the people of Germany.”
Taoiseach Simon Harris described the attack as “shocking and despicable.”
“Thinking of and praying for the victims and their families and all those involved in responding to the situation,” Mr Harris said on X.
Tánaiste Micheal Martin said he is “shocked and appalled” at the loss of life.
“My thoughts and prayers go to the victims, their families, emergency services and the German people,” he said.
French President Emmanuel Macron said he was “profoundly shocked” by the attack and that he “shares the pain of the German people”.
On Saturday morning mourners lit candles and placed flowers outside a church near the market. Several people stopped and cried. A Berlin church choir whose members witnessed a previous Christmas market attack in 2016 sang Amazing Grace, a hymn about God’s mercy, offering their prayers and solidarity with the victims.
It prompted several other German towns to cancel their weekend Christmas markets as a precaution and out of solidarity with Magdeburg’s loss.
The violence shocked the country and the city, bringing its mayor to the verge of tears and marring a festive event that is part of a centuries-old German tradition.
It prompted several other German towns to cancel their weekend Christmas markets as a precaution and out of solidarity with Magdeburg’s loss.
Magdeburg is a city of about 240,000 people, west of Berlin, that serves as Saxony-Anhalt’s capital.
Flowers and candles are placed outside St. John’s Church near the Christmas Market. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Friday’s attack came eight years after an Islamic extremist drove a truck into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing 13 people and injuring many others. The attacker was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.
Verified bystander footage distributed by the German news agency dpa showed the suspect’s arrest at a tram stop in the middle of the road.
A nearby police officer pointing a handgun at the man shouted at him as he lay prone, his head arched up slightly. Other officers soon arrived and took the man into custody.
The five people confirmed dead include an adult and a toddler but officials said additional deaths could not be ruled out because 15 people had been seriously injured.
Journalists stand by a cordoned-off area near the Christmas Market in Magdeburg. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
“As things stand, he is a lone perpetrator, so that as far as we know there is no further danger to the city,” Saxony-Anhalt’s governor Reiner Haseloff told reporters. “Every human life that has fallen victim to this attack is a terrible tragedy and one human life too many.”
Authorities identified the suspect as a 50-year-old Saudi doctor who moved to Germany in 2006 and who had been practising medicine in Bernburg, about 25 miles south of Magdeburg.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry condemned the attack on X but did not mention the suspect’s connection to the kingdom.