BERLIN: The death toll from a car ramming attack on a Christmas market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg in December has risen to six, prosecutors said on Monday (Jan 6).
A 52-year-old woman has died in hospital as a result of injuries she sustained in the attack, the prosecutors in the nearby city of Naumburg said.
A black BMW ploughed through the traditional market on Dec 20, running over and scattering bodies amid the festive stalls.
A total of 299 people were injured in the attack, according to the latest figures from the state interior ministry.
A Saudi doctor of psychiatry, Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, 50, was arrested at the scene, but the suspected attacker’s motive remains unclear.
Abdulmohsen had in many online posts voiced strongly anti-Islam views, anger at German authorities and support for far-right conspiracy narratives on the “Islamisation” of Europe.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said there were signs the suspect was suffering from a psychiatric illness.
The attack came two months ahead of a general election in Germany. It has reignited a heated debate about security and immigration after several deadly knife attacks last year blamed on Islamist extremists.
The far-right Alternative for Germany party, which is currently polling in second place, held what it called a memorial rally for the victims and demanded that Germany “must close the borders”.