Magdeburg suspect was known to police

The German government has vowed to investigate whether a Christmas market car attack that killed five people and injured 200 could have been prevented, after it emerged that authorities had received warnings about the suspect.

- Jon Henley

Amid mounting criticism of Germany's security apparatus, the interior minister, Nancy Faeser, said yesterday the heads of the domestic and foreign intelligence services would be questioned by two parliamentary committees next week.

The man arrested at the scene of Friday's attack in Magdeburg, a Saudi-born psychiatrist named by German media as Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, 50, had made online threats to kill German citizens and has a history of disputes with state authorities.

A self-described "Saudi atheist", who helped women flee Gulf countries, he had been strongly critical of Berlin for allowing in too many Muslim refugees and had repeatedly backed far-right conspiracy theories about the "Islamisation" of Europe.

The victims were identified as four women aged 52, 45, 75 and 67 and a nine-year-old boy, named yesterday by his mother as André Gleißner.

"Let my little teddy bear fly around the world again," Désirée Gleißner said on Facebook.

"André didn't do anything to anybody. He was only with us on earth for nine years. Why you? Just why? You will always live on in our hearts ... I promise you that." Abdulmohsen voiced support on the social media platform X for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland and for X's owner, Elon Musk, who has publicly backed AfD, suggesting only the anti-immigration party "can save Germany".

Faeser said yesterday the task was to "paint a picture" of a suspect "who does not fit any existing mould". He had acted in "an unbelievably cruel and brutal manner, like an Islamist terrorist, though he was clearly ideologically hostile to Islam", she said.