At least one dead after car driven into crowd at Christmas market in Germany

At least one person has been killed after a car was driven into a crowd at a Christmas market in eastern Germany, police have said, according to local public broadcaster MDR.

Between 60 to 80 people have also been injured in the incident in the city of Magdeburg, fire and emergency services have told ITV News’ US partner CNN.

According to MDR, the driver of the car that ploughed through the crowd on Friday evening has been arrested.

Footage from social media, verified by CNN, shows the moment a black car drove directly into the crowd at the busy Christmas market.

In the video, dozens of people are crowded at the market stalls when the vehicle is driven directly into them.

Extensive police measures are currently in place at the scene, Magdeburg police said in a post on X.

Regional government spokesperson Matthias Schuppe and city spokesperson Michael Reif said they suspected it was a deliberate attack.

Mr Reif said there were “numerous injured” but didn’t give a precise figure.

“The pictures are terrible,” he said. “My information is that a car drove into the Christmas market visitors, but I can’t yet say from what direction and how far.”

Footage from the scene of a cordoned-off part of the market showed debris on the ground.

“This is a terrible event, particularly now in the days before Christmas,” Saxony-Anhalt governor Reiner Haseloff added.

Haseloff told dpa that he was on his way to Magdeburg but couldn’t immediately give any information on victims or what was behind the incident.

On the Magdeburg Christmas Market’s Instagram page, people have been advised to avoid the area.

“Please let the emergency services do their job and leave the market in an orderly manner,” the statement reads.

Magdeburg, which is west of Berlin, is the state capital of Saxony-Anhalt and has about 240,000 inhabitants.

On December 19 2016, in Berlin, an Islamic extremist attacker ploughed through a crowd of Christmas market-goers with a truck, leaving 13 people dead and injuring dozens more. The attacker was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser had said late last month that there were no concrete indications of a danger to Christmas markets this year, but that it was wise to be vigilant.