The death toll from a car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg has risen to six after a woman succumbed to her injuries in hospital.
One of the people injured in the Christmas market car attack in the German city of Magdeburg died on Monday, bringing the death toll to six.
Prosecutors in Naumburg said the 52-year-old woman died in a hospital where she was being treated for her injuries, according to German news agency dpa.
Five others died in the attack on 20 December — four women aged between 45 and 75 and a nine-year-old boy. More than 200 people were injured.
In addition, as many as 531 people were traumatised or suffered loss as a result of the incident, Federal Victim’s Commissioner Roland Weber told domestic media.
Authorities arrested Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, a Saudi-born doctor who has been residing in Germany since 2006, at the scene on suspicion of being behind the assault.
Speculation remains about the suspect’s motives. Al-Abdulmohsen described himself as an ex-Muslim who was highly critical of Islam. Online, he voiced support for far-right narratives against the alleged “Islamisation” of Europe in multiple online posts.
Officials have said the suspect’s profile is atypical of those who have carried out similar attacks in Germany in the past and have cautioned against making conclusions about his motives.
Authorities themselves are facing questions on whether or not they could have prevented the attack after it emerged they had received tips that al-Abdulmohsen was harbouring extreme views and yet concluded he was not a significant threat.
Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser told German newspaper Bild that investigators would examine “in detail” whether and in what ways the authorities had investigated the suspect in the past.
Al-Abdulmohsen is currently in pre-trial detention on counts of murder, attempted murder and dangerous bodily harm.
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