Saudi authorities had issued a warning to German officials regarding an individual who had posted extremist views on his personal X account. The alert, which highlighted concerns over the individual’s online activity, came prior to a violent incident in Germany.
Despite the prior warning, authorities were unable to prevent the attack, raising questions about the effectiveness of international intelligence-sharing and counterterrorism measures.
A driver rammed a car into a large crowd of revellers at a Christmas market in central Germany on Friday evening, killing at least two people and injuring more than 60 before he was arrested, authorities said.
A Saudi source told Reuters the kingdom had warned German authorities about the attacker, who the source said had posted extremist views on his personal X account.
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Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry condemned the attack.
The source identified the suspect as Taleb Abdul Jawad. Germany’s Der Spiegel identified the attacker as Taleb A., a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy who sympathised with Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany party. The magazine did not say where it got the information
One of the dead was a young child, said Reiner Haseloff, premier of the state of Saxony-Anhalt. The incident took place in Magdeburg, the state capital, 150 km (90 miles) west of Berlin.
“It is a catastrophe for the city of Magdeburg, for the state and for Germany in general,” Haseloff said, adding that the death toll could rise given the severity of some of the injuries.
Haseloff described the attacker as a 50-year-old male doctor from Saudi Arabia with permanent residency in Germany, where he had lived for almost two decades.
