At least two killed, 60 injured after car ploughs into Magdeburg Christmas market

At least two people have been killed and 60 others injured after a car drove into a crowd at a busy outdoor Christmas market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg, in what authorities are calling a deliberate attack.

The two people confirmed dead are an adult and a toddler, but officials said additional deaths couldn't be ruled out because 15 people were seriously injured.

The driver was arrested at the scene shortly after the car barrelled into the market at around 7pm local time, when it was teeming with holiday shoppers.

Verified bystander footage published by the German news agency dpa showed the suspect's arrest on a walkway in the middle of the road.

A nearby police officer pointing a handgun at the man shouted at him as he lay prone. Other officers soon arrived to take the man into custody.

The suspect is a 50-year-old Saudi doctor who moved to Germany in 2006, Tamara Zieschang, the interior minister for the state of Saxony-Anhalt, said at a news conference.

He has been practicing medicine in Bernburg, about 40 kilometres south of Magdeburg, she said.

"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."

The violent incident has shocked the city, bringing its mayor to the verge of tears and marring a festive event that's part of a centuries-old German tradition.

It also prompted several other German towns to cancel their weekend Christmas markets as a precaution and out of solidarity with Magdeburg's loss.

The violence occurred in Magdeburg, a city of about 240,000 people west of Berlin that serves as Saxony-Anhalt’s capital.

Friday evening'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.

Christmas markets are a huge part of German culture as an annual holiday tradition cherished since the Middle Ages and successfully exported to much of the Western world.

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said late last month that there were no concrete indications of a danger to Christmas markets this year, but that it was wise to be vigilant.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz posted on X: "My thoughts are with the victims and their relatives. We stand beside them and beside the people of Magdeburg."

The European Commission's president and NATO's Secretary General also expressed their condolences on X.

"My thoughts today are with the victims of the brutal and cowardly attack in Magdeburg. This act of violence must be investigated and severely punished," wrote Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen.

"Horrific scenes from a Christmas market in Magdeburg," wrote NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. "NATO stands with Germany."

Magdeburg Mayor Simone Borris said officials plan to arrange a memorial at the city's cathedral on Saturday.