The Saudi doctor who killed five people by plowing into a Christmas market with his BMW vowed to slaughter ’20 Germans’ last year.
German police were warned about the ‘unstable’ Dr. Taleb Al-Abdulmohsen in September last year, but did nothing more than take screenshots of his twisted online threats.
The 50-year-old psychiatrist rammed his SUV into a packed market in the city of Magdeburg on Friday evening, killing a nine-year-old boy and four adults and injuring more than 200 people, 40 of them seriously.
Footage showed horror scenes as the car drove through families who barely had time to turn their heads.
A woman reported his online threat, in Arabic, to the Berlin police and German migration authorities. But no action was taken. Last night she said that Al-Abdulmohsen “openly threatened the lives of Germans, but the police did not arrest him or take any action.” This could have been prevented if the police had done their job properly.’
Al-Abdulmohsen had bypassed security posts and used an emergency corridor – which should have been blocked to anything other than ambulances and police vehicles – to enter the market.
He launched his attack just after 7pm local time in Germany, as thousands of shoppers gathered in central Magdeburg.
Initially driving slowly, the blue SUV pulled into an alley where hundreds of shoppers were browsing stalls and drinking mulled wine.
A police vehicle is stationed at the scene of a car ram attack at the Christmas market on December 21
Several German media identified the suspect as Taleb A (photo) and reported that he was a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy
In the photo: Taleb A, the alleged perpetrator of a car ram that killed five people and injured more than 200 in an attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg, East Germany
Firefighters patrolled the scene of an accident on Friday after a car plowed into a huge crowd of shoppers at a Christmas market in Magdeburg at around 7pm.
The Christmas market, where a car drove into a crowd on Friday evening, in Magdeburg, Germany, is empty on Saturday evening
Mourners lit candles and placed flowers outside a church near the market on this cold and dreary day
Debris and empty stalls are seen at a closed Christmas market a day after a car ram attack in Magdeburg
He then pointed his vehicle directly at the crowd and plowed forward. As shoppers fled in panic, the driver turned another corner and drove out of the market. An off-duty police officer chased the BMW until it came to a stop outside the Magdeburg shopping center, where he was arrested at gunpoint by armed officers.
As the five deaths were confirmed at a somber press conference last night, details emerged about the youngest victim, who was nine, and was shopping with his mother.
Last night his mother posted a touching message for her son. She said, ‘Let my little teddy bear fly around the world again…’ [my son] had not harmed anyone… he had only been with us on earth for nine years… why you… why?’
The boy was a member of the local youth fire club. It said: ‘We are deeply saddened by the loss of such a young life from our own ranks.’
As Germany grieved last night, anger also boiled, with signs of difficult days ahead. More than 1,000 far-right thugs came to Magdeburg to protest the attack, with anger visible on their faces.
Although no violence broke out, there were fears that more such protests were in the offing.
While Al-Abdulmohsen was interrogated, it was revealed that he used drugs during the attack, but police provided no further details. Authorities said his mental and physical condition were under investigation.
The prosecutor said the doctor’s complaint about Germany’s treatment of Saudi dissident asylum seekers was part of the investigation as a possible motive.
Police officers secure the area during the German Chancellor’s visit to the site of a car ram attack at the Christmas market in Magdeburg
People lay flowers at a makeshift memorial near the site of a car ram attack at a Christmas market in Magdeburg
While his Saudi background and a vehicle attack on a Christian event showed all the signs of an Islamist terror attack, Al-Abdulmohsen’s background shows that it was “unusual and contradictory.”
Peter Neumann, professor of security studies at King’s College London, said: ‘He is against Islam, he supports it [the Right-wing] AfD party, he is not an ISIS supporter, but he carried out an attack as an Isis terrorist. So it’s a bit of a cliché to say it, but all of this can point to mental health issues.”
Claims were also made on social media that the Saudis had warned German authorities about Al-Abdulmohsen at least three times, but were ignored.
But Professor Neumann said the claims could be part of a Saudi disinformation campaign as Al-Abdulmohsen was a staunch critic of the country’s rulers.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who visited the site of the attack, said he was “very concerned about the 40” who were reportedly seriously ill.
There were also questions about how another attack on a Christmas market could take place, eight years after the atrocity at Berlin’s Breitscheidplatz market, which left 13 dead and 70 injured. Experts were also dismayed at how police and intelligence services missed warning signs.
Al-Abdulmohsen was a high-profile Saudi ex-Muslim who openly made his threats on social media, where he supported far-right leaders such as Britain’s Tommy Robinson. His warning of a massacre last year followed a dispute with a German refuge for atheist asylum seekers. He alleged that staff there had sexually assaulted a number of Saudi women.
In a tweet he said: “Would you blame me if I randomly killed 20 Germans because of what Germany is doing against the Saudis?”
Stuffed animals, candles and floral tributes lie near the spot where a car plowed into a crowd at a Christmas market in Magdeburg
And in August this year, he posted in Arabic: “I assure you that if Germany wants a war, we will fight it. If Germany wants to kill us, we will slaughter them, die or go to prison with pride.
“Because we have exhausted all peaceful means and everything we have received from the police, state security, the public prosecutor’s office, the judiciary and the Ministry of the Interior, there are only more crimes against us. Peace is of no use to them.’
He also accused the country of allowing too many Syrian terrorists into the country.
He tweeted: ‘Germany’s goal has become clear: to spread Islam in Europe. They attack political movements critical of Islam by infiltrating them with corrupt people, including addicts, prostitutes and thieves, in order to corrupt the movement from within.’