Following the attack on the Magdeburg Christmas market, new details about the security concept for the Christmas market have come to light. According to this, the company Mekka Security GmbH was responsible for securing the Christmas market with mobile patrols, as reported by the newspaper Bild.
Depending on the day of the week and time of day, a different number of employees were scheduled. From Sunday to Thursday, only two security guards were hired from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., from 5 p.m. to 9.30 p.m. four security guards were on duty. At the time of the attack, on a Friday at 19:00, six Mekka Security employees were scheduled. These six employees were supposed to secure the entire Christmas market with thousands of visitors and would also have been responsible for guarding the escape routes.
A six-metre-wide gap was left between two concrete barriers to allow emergency services access to the site. According to the security concept, this gap should only have been four metres wide and should have been closed with a steel chain and then opened when rescue workers needed to enter the site. The attacker Taleb al-Abdulmohsen took advantage of this open gap to kill five people at the Christmas market in a BMW car and injure hundreds more.
Security would also have been responsible for opening and closing the escape gap. It remains unclear how they were supposed to both monitor and ensure the safety of the Christmas market with the limited number of staff. It is also questionable whether it was even planned to place a steel chain on the concrete blocks to protect against attacks. Because in order to be able to place this steel chain between the concrete bollards, the concrete bollards would have needed eyelets. And these eyelets were not available.
This safety concept may still have legal repercussions for the city of Magdeburg. The entire concept, with far too few security personnel, had to be authorised by the city. In the meantime, several complaints have been filed against those responsible from the city of Magdeburg and the police because of the blatant shortcomings.
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