A car drove into a group of people at a Christmas market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg on Friday, leaving at least one person dead and between 60 and 80 people injured.
The driver of the car, reported to be a dark BMW, was arrested following the crash which took place at 7:04pm today, according to unidentified government officials in the state of Saxony-Anhalt who spoke to the dpa news agency.
Video footage too graphic to share appears to show the dark car careening into the dense crowd, leaving dozens of people lying on the floor.
Within seconds, countless revellers can be see fleeing for their lives in the wake of the crash.
Separate footage showed children crying loudly as several small crowds of people formed over those injured in the crash, in apparent attempts to help them.
The Magdeburg Christmas market is located on the Old Market, directly next to Magdeburg Town Hall near the River Elbe, and was closed by organisers following the incident.
Organisers have also asked people to leave the city centre. Neighbouring cities, including Halle, around 50 miles from Magdeburg, are preparing its hospitals to take on victims.
Halle is also stepping up its own security measures in the wake of the incident.
The driver of the car, reported to be a dark BMW, was arrested following the crash which took place at 7:04pm today
A car drove into a group of people at a Christmas market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg on Friday, leaving between 60 and 80 people injured
At least one person is reported to have died in the crash
Saxony-Anhalt’s Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff said in the wake of the attack: ‘This is a terrible event, especially now in the days before Christmas.’
Haselhoff is said to be travelling to the city to bear witness to the aftermath of the attack.
Magdeburg, which is west of Berlin, is the state capital of Saxony-Anhalt and has about 240,000 inhabitants.
The horror crash comes less than a month after Germany’s interior minister Nancy Faeser said that while there were no concrete indications of a danger to Christmas markets this year, it was wise to be vigilant.
This is a breaking story – more to follow.
