Seven Indians were injured in an attack on a Christmas market in Germany, sources said today. Sources said three of them have been discharged from the hospital, adding that the Indian Embassy is in touch with all the injured Indians.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in a statement said India “condemns the horrific and senseless attack on the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany.”
The Ministry of External Affairs said, “Many precious lives have been lost and many have been injured. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims. Our Mission is in touch with the injured Indians and their families and is providing all possible assistance.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz condemned the “horrific, insane” attack in which a jihadist drove a truck into a Berlin Christmas market just days before Christmas and eight years ago, killing five people and paralyzing the country. Was in shock.
The suspect in the deadly car-ramming attack, a Saudi, held anti-Islam views and was angry over Germany’s migration policy, news agency AFP reported on Saturday.
The accused, Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, drove an SUV at high speed through a dense crowd on Friday, injuring 205 people in the eastern city of Magdeburg. The mass massacre sparked grief and hatred, with the dead including a nine-year-old child and casualties being treated in 15 regional hospitals.
A self-described “Saudi atheist” who as an activist helped women flee the oil-rich kingdom, he has spoken out against Islam but also Germany’s illiberal attitude toward refugees from other predominantly Muslim countries. Even against.
Interior Minister Nancy Fraser said his views were “Islamophobic”, and a prosecutor said that “the background of the crime… may have led to dissatisfaction with the way refugees from Saudi Arabia are treated in Germany”.
Taha al-Haji of the Berlin-based European Saudi Organization for Human Rights told AFP Abdulmohsen was “a psychologically disturbed individual with an exaggerated sense of self-importance”.
Surveillance video footage of the attack shows a black BMW driving straight through the crowd, scattering bodies among festival stalls selling traditional handicrafts, snacks and spiced liquor.
On Saturday, debris and discarded medical supplies were blown into the besieged site, where stalls now stand empty around a giant Christmas tree, the event canceled for this year out of respect for the victims.
Alice Weidel, leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has focused on jihadist attacks in its campaign against immigrants, wrote on X: “When will this madness stop?”
“What happened today has affected a lot of people. It affects us a lot,” Fel Kelian, a 27-year-old Cameroonian who lives in the city, told AFP. “I think because (the suspect) is a foreigner, people will be unhappy, less welcoming.”
With inputs from AFP
