The alleged perpetrator of the deadly car-ramming attack on a Christmas market last week in Germany had been contacted by police just weeks before the incident, authorities said on Monday.
The attack in the central city of Magdeburg on Friday, which killed five people and injured 235 others, is believed to have been carried out by a Saudi national identified only as Taleb A according to German privacy laws.
Investigators have been searching for a motive since the incident, amid suggestions that authorities failed to heed warnings about the man.
Tamara Zieschang, the interior minister of the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, on Monday told lawmakers in Magdeburg that police met the man twice – in September 2023 and October 2024 – to warn him about his behaviour.
The first conversation was held at the police station in Salzlandkreis, near Magdeburg, while the meeting this year took place at the suspect’s workplace.
Zieschang did not comment publicly on the background to the meetings, but told members of the state parliament that she would present relevant context in the confidential part of the parliamentary session.
Police and emergency services are on the move around the big final mountain parade in the city center. More than 1100 people wearing traditional costumes, including around 300 mountain musicians, take part in the parade. With a minute’s silence and the ringing of the bells of St. Anne’s Church at the closing ceremony, the city wants to express its sympathy after the attack at Magdeburg’s Christmas market. Hendrik Schmidt/dpa
