Transcript of Carnage at German Christmas market as car smashes into crowd in suspected attack | BBC News

A Christmas market in Germany was turned into a scene of carnage tonight after a car plowed through crowds, leaving at least two people dead, including a small child, and injuring over 60. This is the scene live there now. Emergency services and police are still in attendance, and all hospitals are preparing for a mass casualty event. The suspect is said to be a 50-year-old doctor who's a Saudi national and who's been in Germany since 2006. The incident took place in a market in the center of the city of Magdeburg in East Germany. With more, here's Francis Reid.

Confusion, chaos. There are passes by tending to those injured on the ground. What sounds like children children crying, and adults, too. People are looking round, bewildered at what's just happened. Eyewitnesses say a car drove at speed straight into dozens upon dozens of people. Just a few hours ago, this market was bustling with people shopping and socializing in the days before Christmas. Ambulances and emergency services scramble to help those they can, taking people to hospital and treating at the scene. Hospitals in the area are told to deal with a mass casualty event.

This is a terrible tragedy. It's a catastrophe for the city of Magdeburg and for Germany in general. For this to happen at a Christmas market is hard to comprehend.

Attacks on citizens in Germany are nothing new. Eight years ago, an articulated lorry plowed into a busy Christmas market in the heart of Berlin, killing 12 people and injuring many more.. Tonight, German police have arrested a doctor from Saudi Arabia who's been in Germany since 2006. They believe an explosive device was in the car, and investigators are now on site. But now, they work to save lives in what has become another scene of horror. Frances Reid, BBC News.

We can speak now to our correspondent in Berlin, Damian McGinnis. Damian, real shock and horror as Francis was saying there at what's happened. Can you just bring us up to date with the latest?

Yeah, very distressing scenes at a festive time when usually people would be celebrating at that Christmas market as they do across Germany. Now, what we do know, local officials have been saying two people at least have been killed, one of them a small child, and it's thought that as many as 70 people could be injured, possibly around 15, seriously. Of course, that means this is an ongoing situation because you're talking about large amounts of people, and I think that's probably why officials are talking about an attack. That's the word they are using. It does sound like this is a deliberate act, and the suspect has been arrested. There doesn't seem to be anyone else involved. The suspected perpetrator is a 50-year-old man, originally from Saudi Arabia, who's been working as a doctor for many years in Germany, for around 20 years in the region. And police say they have no idea why he might have carried this out. There's no suspected or no known links to Ismus extremism that police or officials know about, and he doesn't have any police records. So I think that'll be the next question. Why on earth did someone who's been here so long and works as a doctor in the region appear to have carried out something so horrific?

But for now, it really is about mourning the loss of those lives and then worrying about the serious victims and the injuries that people have also suffered. So a sad night there in Magdeburg right.