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The German broadcaster MDR stated that a minimum of one individual had been killed and a number of other injured in the incident in the state of Saxony-Anhalt. Eyewitnesses advised the broadcaster that the automobile drove straight into a crowd.
Police arrested an individual in reference to the incident, in keeping with the German press company DPA.
A spokesperson for the Saxony-Anhalt regional authorities advised the company that it was “in all probability an assault”.
“This can be a horrible occasion, significantly now in the times earlier than Christmas,” the state’s prime minister, Reiner Haseloff, stated.
The incident comes nearly eight years to the day since 12 individuals have been killed and 49 injured in 2016, when a 24-year-old Tunisian failed asylum seeker drove into a Christmas market in Berlin. A thirteenth sufferer of the assault, which was claimed by the jihadist group Isis, died in 2021.
German federal inside minister Nancy Faeser not too long ago known as for vigilance when visiting Christmas markets. Talking on the finish of November, she stated that there was no concrete proof of a direct menace, however she added: “Given the excessive degree of menace in the summary, we nonetheless have purpose to be very vigilant and to behave persistently for our safety.”
The incident comes as Germany gears up for early elections in February, in which migration and legislation and order are set to function strongly. The far-right Different for Germany (AfD) is at present polling in second place.
The occasion secured a historic first place end in regional elections in the state of Thuringia earlier this yr, and completed second in two different japanese German states. The votes passed off shortly after a terror attack in August in the city of Solingen, when a Syrian nationwide suspected of being a member of Isis fatally stabbed three individuals and injured eight others.
