Suspect in German Christmas market attack held on murder charges

A man suspected of driving a car into a German Christmas market in an attack that killed at least five people and injured scores of others faces charges of murder and attempted murder, police said on Sunday, after the man was remanded in custody.

Police in the central city of Magdeburg where the attack happened on Friday also reported scuffles at a far-right demonstration attended by around 2,000 people on Saturday night, while other residents took part in somber remembrance events.

The suspect is a 50-year-old man from Saudi Arabia who has lived in Germany for almost two decades and has permanent resident status in the country.

A magistrate ordered the suspect, psychiatrist and anti-Islam activist Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, into pre-trial custody after prosecutors pressed charges of murder on five counts, multiple counts of attempted murder and grievous bodily harm, according to a police statement.

Police identified the dead as a nine-year-old boy and four adult women, aged 52, 45, 75 and 67.

Police reported scuffles at a protest attended by around 2,000 people on Saturday night, 24 hours after the attack. Right-wingers had billed the gathering on messaging app Telegram as a "demonstration against terror".

Protesters wearing black balaclavas could be seen holding a large banner with the word 'remigration', a term popular with far-right supporters seeking the mass deportation of migrants and people deemed not ethnically German.

The motive in Friday night's attack remains unclear. Investigators are probing the suspect's criticism of German authorities' treatment of Saudi refugees, among other things.

He was also a staunch critic of Islam and had voiced support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on social media.

Abdulmohsen, who was arrested at the scene next to the heavily damaged car, referred to himself as "a Saudi atheist" in an unpublished interview with AFP from 2022.