German authorities have been alerted to a suspect in last year's Christmas market car attack, authorities said on Sunday, providing further details about the five people killed in the attack.
The Federal Office for Immigration and Refugees said on Sunday in X that the report, which it said was received late last summer, “like many others, was taken seriously.”
But the bureau also said it was not an investigative agency and referred the information to the responsible authorities in accordance with its procedures in such cases.
TNN/DPA over AP
No other details about the suspect or the nature of the warning were released.
Police in the central city of Magdeburg, where Friday night's attack took place, said Sunday that the dead were four women, aged 45, 52, 67 and 75, and a 9-year-old boy who had been speaking on the day. did. Previously.
Officials said 200 people were injured, 41 of them in critical condition.
They were being treated at multiple hospitals in Magdeburg, about 130 miles west of Berlin, and beyond.
Authorities have identified the suspect in the Magdeburg attack as a Saudi doctor who arrived in Germany in 2006 and had obtained permanent residency.
The suspect was brought before a judge Saturday night, who ordered him held behind closed doors until arraignment.
Police have not released the suspect's name, but German news outlets identified him as Taleb A., with his last name withheld to comply with privacy laws, and reported that he was an expert in psychiatry and psychotherapy.
The suspect, who describes himself as a former Muslim, appears to have been an active user of social media platform He was blessing Muslims who left the country.
He also accused German authorities of not doing enough to combat what he called the “Islamization of Europe.”
He also appears to have been a supporter of the anti-immigration party Alternative for Germany.
Immigration is likely to remain a key issue as Germany heads to early elections on February 23, amid fears that it has sparked another wave of mass violence.
Right-wing groups across Europe have criticized German authorities for allowing high levels of immigration in the past and for what they now see as a security flaw.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, long known for his strong anti-immigration stance, used the attack in Germany to slam the European Union's immigration policy, calling it an “act of terrorism.”
Speaking at his annual press conference in Budapest on Saturday, Prime Minister Orbán said: “There is no doubt that there is a link between the changed world of Western Europe and the influx of migrants there, especially illegal immigration, and acts of terrorism.'' No,” he claimed.
Prime Minister Orbán vowed to “fight back” against the EU's immigration policy, saying “Brussels wants something like Magdeburg to happen to Hungary.”
