(de-news.net) – Following the attack on the Magdeburg Christmas market, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) emphasized the imperative of societal cohesion, underscoring the necessity to maintain national unity. He called for meticulous and comprehensive investigations to elucidate the perpetrator’s identity, actions, and motives.

Chancellor Scholz visited the crime scene accompanied by Saxony-Anhalt’s Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff (CDU) and other dignitaries, including Federal Ministers Steffi Lemke (Greens), Nancy Faeser (SPD), and Volker Wissing (independent), as well as opposition leader Friedrich Merz (CDU).

The incident involved a 50-year-old individual driving a BMW SUV into the crowd, resulting in at least five fatalities and over 200 injuries, with concerns that the death toll may increase. The perpetrator, a Saudi Arabian physician from Bernburg, is identified as an Islamophobe rather than an Islamist. The details remain indeterminate.