A tribute has been paid to nine-year-old André Gleißner, who was killed in Friday’s devastating attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany.
The young boy was a member of the children’s fire brigade in Warle, about an hour’s drive from where the tragedy occurred, the Schöppenstedt fire department confirmed.
André was among five people who lost their lives when a car ploughed through crowds of shoppers at the festive market. The other victims were four women, aged 45, 52, 67 and 75.
André‘s mother, Désirée, wrote on Facebook: “Let my little teddy bear fly around the world again. André didn’t do anything to anybody. He was only with us on earth for nine years. Why you? Just why?”
The attack, which took place around 7pm local time on Friday, saw a black BMW SUV drive 400 metres through the crowded market at speed, driving over some people and flinging others into the air.
More than 200 people were injured in the attack, with 41 currently in critical condition with life-threatening injuries. The injured are being treated at 15 clinics across the country.
Forensic scientists are investigating whether the suspect deliberately turned off the emergency braking mechanism on the hired BMW X3 to maximise its impact. Prosecutors said the attacker had bypassed security bollards by using a corridor meant for emergency service vehicles to enter the market.
Eyewitnesses described watching in horror as the car appeared to specifically target a fairytale-themed section of the market where families with young children had gathered. The Magdeburg Christmas market remains closed, with most lights in the city centre turned off following the tragedy.
The suspect, identified as 50-year-old Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, is in police custody and has been charged with five murders and 200 attempted murders. Al-Abdulmohsen, a psychiatrist and psychotherapist, came to Germany in 2006 and applied for asylum a decade later.
He was apprehended by armed police minutes after the attack in a dramatic altercation near the battered BMW.
Chief state prosecutor Horst Walter Nopens said the suspect’s motivation “could be he was dissatisfied with the way in which Saudi Arabian refugees were dealt with in Magdeburg.”
The attacker had previously warned on social media that “something big will happen.”
The timing of the attack was particularly poignant, coming almost eight years to the day since an Islamist terrorist attack on Berlin’s Breitscheidplatz Christmas market killed 12 people.
One city official summed up the mood simply: “Christmas is over in Magdeburg.”
