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The German city of Magdeburg is in mourning after attack on a busy Christmas market in which at least five people died and hundreds were injured.
The accolades piled up on Saturday as state leaders visited the site of the attack where the driver he crashed his car into the crowd on Friday around 19h.
Like a a clearer picture of what happened when it appeared, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz promised to use the full force of the law as he called for unity across the country.
The official death toll rose throughout the day, with five people – including a nine-year-old child – confirmed dead and another 200 injured. Mr Scholz expressed concern for the 40 injured, who are believed to be in a critical condition.
Minutes after the attack, the suspect was arrested for surrendering in the middle of the road before lying on the ground while being taken into custody.
His motives have not yet been confirmed, but he is known to be a 50-year-old Saudi doctor who moved to Germany in 2006 and was later granted refugee status in 2016.
He was named by German media as Taleb A and reportedly showed support for the far-right Alternative for Germany party, although the party said he was not a member.
a Saudi source said Reuters kingdom alerted German authorities to the suspect, who the source said had posted extremist views on his personal X account.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told reporters on Saturday: “At this point, we can only say with certainty that the perpetrator was clearly Islamophobic – we can confirm that. Everything else is a matter of further investigation and we have to wait.”
He worked as a psychiatrist in the nearby town of Bernburg, and his workplace issued a statement describing their shock at the attack.
Posting on Instagram, the Salus-Fachklinikum Bernburg clinic said it was “shocked to learn that the alleged perpetrator worked as a specialist doctor in our persecution in Bernburg”.
It is added that the suspect has been employed there as a specialist in psychiatry since March 2020, but has not worked since October due to illness and rest.
Members of the Magdeburg community gathered to pay their respects to the victims at a nearby church on Saturday, with locals and politicians laying flowers, lighting candles and leaving teddy bears.
A memorial service will be held in the city on Saturday evening at 19:00 local time.
Among those expected to attend are Mr Scholz and Saxony-Anhalt Governor Reiner Haseloff, who addressed reporters together at the market on Saturday morning.
Mr Haseloff said it was “astounding” and “unthinkable” that “something like this could happen in Germany”, thanking emergency workers.
Mr Scholz went on to pledge government support to those in need, as he condemned the attack as “barbaric”.
Calling for unity, he added: “We should not allow those who want to sow hatred to do so.”
Andrea Reis, who was at the market on Friday, returned on Saturday with her daughter Julia to place a candle by the church overlooking the site. She said that if it hadn’t been for a few moments, they might have been on their way to the car.
“I said, ‘Let’s go get a sausage,’ but my daughter said, ‘No, let’s keep walking around.’ “If we had stayed where we were, we would have been in the way of the car,” she said.
Tears streamed down her face as she described the scene. “The children are screaming, crying for their mother. You can’t forget that,” she said.