Muslim attack on the Magdeburg Christmas market
In the attack on the Magdeburg Christmas market, a Muslim immigrant and physician in Germany, Taleb bin Jawad bin Hussein al-Abdulmohsen (b. 5 November 1974 in Hofuf, Saudi Arabia), drove a previously rented black BMW X3 through an emergency lane onto the Magdeburg Christmas market at the Alter Markt at 19:04 CET on the evening of 20 December 2024, and drove at high speed through the crowd. Six people were killed and at least 323 others injured. He was arrested by police immediately after the rampage. Two weeks prior to the attack, an Iraqi Muslim was arrested on suspicion of planning an attack against a Christmas market in Augsburg, Bavaria.
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Victims
Six people died in the attack: a nine-year-old child from Lower Saxony and five women aged 45, two aged 52 (succumbed to her injuries in hospital on 6 January 2025), 67, and 75. Forty-one people were critically injured, 90 seriously, and more than 80 slightly. On 3 January 2025, the Ministry of the Interior updated the number of injured to 299. A further 232 people were not physically injured but required psychological care. On 2 May 2025, it was announced that the number of injured had risen to 323. Among the injured were 52 children.
The Christmas market in Magdeburg, which opened on 22 November 2024, was originally scheduled to run until 29 December 2024, but was closed early for the remainder of the season. Just a few hours after the incident, several media outlets reported unanimously that an attack was suspected. A spokesperson for the state government of Saxony-Anhalt also spoke early on of an attack. Reference was made to the attack on Berlin's Breitscheidplatz on 19 December 2016, in which 13 people were murdered and 67 injured. The spokesperson for the victims and relatives of the Islamist attack in Berlin stated that this attack appeared exactly like the one on Breitscheidplatz.
Terrorist
- In May 2024, Abdulmohsen wrote, "I seriously expect to die this year. The reason: I will ensure justice at any cost. And the German authorities are hindering any peaceful path to justice." A few minutes before the attack, he posted more videos. In one of them, Abdulmohsen said, "The police themselves are the criminals. In this case, I hold the German nation, I hold the German citizens responsible for what is in store for me." In another video before the attack, Abdulmohsen said, "Another reason why I hold German citizens responsible for the persecution I experience in Germany is the story of a USB stick stolen from my mailbox."
The Shiite terrorist, a ward physician for the psychiatric care of criminals for the healthcare company Salus in the Bernburg correctional facility who had immigrated to Germany in March 2006, was brought before an investigating judge at the Magdeburg District Court on the evening of 21 December 2024, who issued an arrest warrant and ordered pretrial detention on charges of murder, multiple counts of attempted murder, and multiple counts of dangerous bodily harm. On 23 December 2024, the Naumburg Public Prosecutor's Office took over the investigation into the crime (at the time: "suspicion of multiple counts of murder and attempted murder in conjunction with dangerous bodily harm in hundreds of cases") under the case number 111 Js 9/24 GenStA Naumburg.
On 23 December 2024, al-Abdulmohsen was terminated without notice by his employer. Saudi Arabia is said to have warned German security authorities about Taleb Jawad al-Abdulmohsen three times in the recent past. According to information from WDR, NDR, and Süddeutsche Zeitung, several people have reported to the police regarding threats of violence from al-Abdulmohsen. The Federal Intelligence Service (BND) received a report from Saudi Arabia that al-Abdulmohsen had announced something "big" in Germany as early as 2023. The relevant state authorities are said to have followed up on this tip. Witnesses reported that the perpetrator shouted Allahu Akbar (“God is exceedingly great”) when he was arrested.
An expert report commissioned by the Attorney General's Office concluded that al-Abdulmohsen is competent to stand trial and is criminally responsible. German journalist Tim Rohn from Welt shared on X that in September 2023, a Saudi woman who had been in contact with al-Abdulmohsen via the Internet attempted to warn the police in Berlin that al-Abdulmohsen wanted to kill 20 Germans. She erroneously sent her email to US police in Berlin, New Jersey and it was unclear what happened to the tip.
Commemoration
The Saudi Arabian Foreign Ministry condemned the attack on behalf of the Saudi Arabian government and expressed “its solidarity with the German people and the families of the victims” in a letter on the portal X. As a precautionary measure and in response to the incident, the New York City Police Department increased security at the German Christmas markets in New York.
On 23 December 2025, the patriotic AfD party held a dignified memorial event on the Cathedral Square under the motto "Mourning Unites – For a Secure Future," with over 10,000 participants, which was broadcast live by many legacy media and alternative media outlets. Among those present were AfD co-leader Dr. Alice Weidel, who delivered a speech calling for the remigration of culturally alien, dangerous foreigners.
Aftermath
After a knife attack in Aschaffenburg on 22 January 2025 by a perpetrator from Afghanistan, in which a 41-year-old and a 2-year-old were butchered, the Magdeburg car attack, along with Muslim stabbings in Mannheim (a German policeman was killed during live coverage on 31 May 2024 by ISIS sympathizer Sulaiman Ataee) and Solingen (27-year-old Syrian Issa al-Hasan, linked to the Islamic State, killed three people and injured eight others on 23 August 2024) that had taken place earlier in 2024, was seen as reason for pre-election debates pivoting away from the state of the economy to immigration, crime, autogenocide and domestic security.
