The alarm has been raised on Friday night in Germany, a few days before Christmas, after the “attack” on the Magdeburg Christmas market in the state of Saxony-Anhalt. According to the first data of the German police, a BMW brand car, which was possibly rented and possibly carrying an explosive device, crashed into a gathered crowd at a central Christmas market, while the driver has already been arrested.

The car drove 400 meters into the Christmas market, causing panic. Eyewitnesses speak of “images of war”.

According to the official information from the German authorities, there are at least two dead, among them a small child. It is not excluded that their number will increase during the night, as stated by the Prime Minister of the state, Rainer Hasselhoff. He spoke of a “horrible tragedy” and a “catastrophe” for Magdeburg and Germany.

German networks such as the newspaper Welt and the n-tv network cite sources from the German security authorities as to the identity of the attacker and they speak of a man born in 1974 of Saudi Arabian origin. According to the latest information, this is a fifty-year-old doctor who worked at the Magdeburg University Hospital, who had not concerned the authorities for Islamic connections. He had come to Germany in 2006.

Soltz: Bad news is coming

“The reports so far portend bad news.” This is a first reaction of Chancellor Olaf Solz to the “attack” in Magdeburg, expressing his solidarity with the victims and their families. On Saturday, the chancellor Olaf Solz and the minister Interior Nancy Feser is expected to move to Magdeburg.

Similar messages have been coming in the last hour from other political leaders as well as from President Frank-Balter Steinmeier. “Magdeburg abruptly interrupts the anticipation for a peaceful Christmas” the German President said in his first message.

The fact is that for a long time the German secret services and the German sub. Insiders spoke of an “abstract risk” of religiously motivated terrorist attacks on Christmas markets.

An alarm was also sounded at the Christmas market in Erfurt on Friday night, which was evacuated, but there were no reports of an attack or casualties.

Just yesterday in Berlin, an ecumenical service was held in memory of the 13 dead in Berlin’s central Christmas market, on the historic Breitscheidplatz in 2016, following an Islamist terrorist attack.