Magdeburg market assault newest: Child amongst two useless with as much as 80 injured after automotive ploughs into crowd in Germany

• At least two people were killed. An adult and a small child are the two dead.
• 68 injured, including 15 who were hurt very seriously.
• 37 people had injuries of medium severity and 16 were lightly injured.
• The suspect is believed to be a 50-year-old Saudi doctor who first came to Germany in 2006
• German media previously reported that police suspected explosives were in the suspect’s car. They later confirmed none were found.

Saxony-Anhalt premier Reiner Haseloff told a local news outlets that one of the dead was a child.. He added that he could not say whether there would be further deaths as a result of the suspected attack.

“That is speculation now. Every human life that has fallen victim to this attack is a terrible tragedy and one human life too many,” Haseloff told reporters.

Christmas markets are a huge part of German culture as an annual holiday tradition cherished since the Middle Ages and successfully exported to much of the Western world.

In Berlin alone, more than 100 markets opened late last month and brought the smells of mulled wine, roasted almonds and bratwurst to the capital.

Other markets abound across the country.

It’s gone 4 a.m. local time on Saturday in Germany now.

Pictures from the scene in the early hours show police standing guard by the deserted stalls.

Friday’s attack echoes a similar atrocity at the Berlin Christmas market eight years ago.

Anis Amri rammed a large truck into the market, killing 13 people and injuring dozens more on December 19, 2016.

The attack was later claimed by Islamic State.

Using fake documents, Amri fled to Italy and died in a shootout with police near Milan four days later.

Just three days after the attack the market defiantly reopened and was bustling once again.

Berliners and tourists milled around the stalls selling traditional gingerbread and gifts under the watchful eye of patrolling squads of armed police, surrounded by protective concrete barriers, our reporting from the time notes.

The suspect who drove into a crowd of people at the busy Christmas market has been named in local media reports as Taleb A.

He was recognized as a refugee in 2016 and is a consultant for psychiatry and psychotherapy in the nearby town of Bernburg.

The man had a permanent residence permit, Saxony-Anhalt interior minister Tamara Zieschang confirmed.

He has been arrested and is in police custody.

New images reportedly show the vehicle that ploughed through the crowd at the market.

The black BMW car is severely damaged, with the windscreen shattered.

Tamara Zieschang, interior minister for the state of Saxony-Anhalt, has shared more details about the suspect in Friday night’s attack:

“This is one of the darkest days for Saxony-Anhalt and also for the state capital Magdeburg. As things stand, we have two fatalities to mourn and a large number of injured.

“The perpetrator has been arrested. He is a 50-year-old man from Saudi Arabia, who first entered the Federal Republic of Germany in 2006. He had a permanent residence permit and thus a permanent residence permit.

“Most recently he worked as a doctor in Bernburg. According to our current information, he acted alone. There is no information on other perpetrators. Everything else is the subject of further investigations.”

A witness has described how he saw the suspect driving at speeds of “at least 30 – 40mph” through the crowded market.

Liam Clowes, 29, told Sky News: “I turned around and initially thought the noise was the children’s carousel that was just behind us.

“All of a sudden a car comes from the right of us straight across. It was driving at a speed of at least 30-40mph and people were going over the car.

“We knew it was a serious incident as it happened. The driver didn’t apply any brakes or anything, the car was just driven through people.”

A firefighter told how he rushed to the market to help after he heard about the attack.

“It was like something out of a bad movie,” 22-year-old Johannes told German newspaper Bild.

“I ran through the devastated market, people were lying on the left and right. And the only thing that went through my mind was: who am I going to help now? I then grabbed the injured people who didn’t have anyone with them and took them to the appropriate treatment areas.

“With a permanent marker, I wrote the words green, yellow or red on the injured people’s faces, depending on how severe their injuries were.

“The people in Magdeburg are in shock. But at the same time, they have shown that they are there for each other. I was proud when I saw how many helpers came together in such a short space of time.”