The residents of Magdeburg gathered to commemorate the victims of the attack that occurred at the Christmas market. The memorial ceremony was held on the evening of December 21, reports the Adyrna national portal, citing the KNA agency.
Several hundred people assembled at the Lutheran church in Magdeburg for an ecumenical service attended by Protestant and Catholic bishops. Many of the rescuers and emergency workers who responded to the attack also participated in the ceremony.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and Saxony-Anhalt Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff were present at the service. Despite the cold and rain, hundreds of people watched the service on a large screen in the church square. Exactly at 7:04 PM, marking 24 hours since the attack, all church bells in the city rang.
On the morning of Sunday, December 22, several hundred people gathered at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Magdeburg, located 100 meters from Alter Markt Square, where the attack took place. A spontaneous memorial of flowers, candles, and toys appeared near the church.
According to the KNA agency, on Saturday evening, an ultranationalist demonstration also took place in downtown Magdeburg. Several hundred people attended the rally, where the main banner demanded “remigration.”
On December 20, an attack on visitors at the Magdeburg Christmas market claimed the lives of five people, including a 9-year-old child, and injured over 200 others. The attacker, a 50-year-old doctor from Saudi Arabia who had been living in Germany since 2006 and had renounced Islam, was arrested. The court issued a detention warrant for him. Investigators do not consider the attack to be an act of Islamist terrorism.
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev sent a condolence telegram to German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, expressing sympathy to the victims’ families and loved ones.
