Officials defend Magdeburg security days after Christmas market attack killed five

Saxony-Anhalt’s Interior Minister defended security measures in Magdeburg, two days after a car crashed into the city’s Christmas market, killing five people and injuring more than 200.

“The police have made intensive preparations to secure Christmas markets across the state. In Magdeburg in particular, we have extensively used the new legal possibility of random checks on bags to enforce the ban on guns and knives in Christmas markets,” Tamara Zieschang said. in question.

“This, combined with the high police presence at all Christmas markets, and I believe the high police presence at the Magdeburg Christmas market also contributed to the capture of the perpetrator within three minutes.”

Zieschang said he was also aware that many Christmas markets in Germany were canceled or held in a quieter environment with no music and fewer lights.

While there has been criticism about how this attack could have happened and calls for more coordination between federal and state authorities, some experts say Germany’s festive markets, which attract thousands of people in the weeks before Christmas, may never be fully secured.

This is partly because emergency vehicles must be able to access the site and also because more than one emergency exit must be available by law.

But German authorities are also under pressure to explain why they did not act more quickly on tips they received last year about the suspect, identified only as Taleb A. under German privacy laws.

Holger Münch, head of the Federal Criminal Police Office, said in an interview with broadcaster ZDF that his office received a tip from Saudi Arabia in November 2023, which led authorities to initiate “appropriate investigative measures.”

“The man also published numerous posts on the Internet. He also contacted various authorities, making insults and even threats. However, he was not known to have committed acts of violence,” Münch said.

But he said the warnings turned out to be too vague.

The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees also said that it received a tip about Taleb A. in late summer last year.

“This, like many other tips, was taken seriously,” the office said in a post on X.

However, he also noted that he was not an investigative authority and had forwarded the information to the responsible authorities. He gave no other details.

The Central Council of Ex-Muslims also said in a statement that the suspect had been “terrorizing” them for years.

“He apparently shared beliefs from the far-right spectrum of the AfD and believed in a wide-ranging conspiracy to Islamize Germany. His delusional ideas went so far that he assumed that even organizations critical of Islamism were part of the Islamist conspiracy.” the council said in a statement.

Taleb A., a Saudi citizen who moved to Germany in 2006 and received a permanent residence permit, He was charged with murder and attempted murder on Sunday.

Authorities say he does not fit the usual profile of perpetrators of extremist attacks. He has described himself as a former Muslim who is highly critical of Islam and has expressed support for the far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in many social media posts.

He remains in custody while authorities investigate him.

Holger Münch of the Federal Criminal Police Office said investigations so far showed that the attack did not have an Islamist terrorism angle.

“Quite the opposite. The facts of the incident before the attack can be classified, as one would fear. But the motivation is completely different. An atypical perpetrator, if you will, who does not fit into such a picture,” he told ZDF.

Meanwhile, the Christmas market in Magdeburg has reopened with an increased police presence.