On 20 December 2024, an SUV was driven into a crowd at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, killing 6 people and injuring 309 others. The driver of the car, 50-year-old anti-Islam activist Taleb Al-Abdulmohsen, was arrested at the scene. German authorities have described the perpetrator as an Islamophobe. The Federal Prosecutor General classified the attack not as an act of terrorism, but as a rampage. The driver was sentenced to life in prison for six murders, as well as multiple attempted murders and grievous bodily harm, on 26 June 2026.
Background
Magdeburg is the capital of the state of Saxony-Anhalt. The city holds an annual Christmas market near the city hall and a large shopping center.
Christmas markets have previously been targeted by vehicle-ramming attacks, such as the 2016 attack in Berlin. That attack, perpetrated by the Islamic State, killed 12 people and injured 56 others. Minister of the interior and community Nancy Faeser said in November 2024 that there were no "concrete" threats to Christmas markets, but that it was wise to maintain vigilance.
Two weeks prior to the attack, an Iraqi man was arrested on suspicion of planning an attack against a Christmas market in Augsburg, Bavaria.
Attack and casualties
At 19:04 CET on 20 December 2024, a black BMW rental car, reportedly rented shortly before the attack, was driven into a crowd at high speed at a Christmas market in Magdeburg. The car traveled at least 400 meters (1,300 ft), according to police; the public prosecutor's office would later state that during the attack, which it said had lasted one minute and four seconds, the car had reached a speed of up to 48 kilometers (30 mi) per hour. The driver of the vehicle was arrested at the Allee-Center tram stop.
People who were uninjured helped provide first aid to the injured until emergency services arrived. Others described a chaotic aftermath with "blood on the floor" and people wrapped in emergency blankets to keep them warm. A shopkeeper, who was also a bystander, described the scenes as "reminiscent of a war".
A spokesperson from the Saxony-Anhalt state government said it was "probably an attack". A luggage item was discovered in the passenger seat of the vehicle and police cordoned off the area following suspicions that an explosive device was inside the vehicle. By midnight, an investigation had determined that there were no explosives in the car.
Victims
Five people were killed at the time of the attack; they were four women aged between 45 and 75 and nine-year-old André Gleissner. A 52-year-old woman became the sixth fatality after dying from her injuries in January 2025. More than 205 people were injured, including 41 in critical condition. On 3 January 2025, the number of injured was revised by authorities to 299. At Abdulmohsen's trial, 309 injuries were counted.
Perpetrator
According to information from the Minister-President of Saxony-Anhalt, Reiner Haseloff (CDU), the Saxony-Anhalt Interior Minister Tamara Zieschang (CDU), as well as Die Welt and Der Spiegel, the suspect was named as "Taleb A." due to German privacy laws.
Details released by authorities led foreign media outlets to identify Taleb A. as Taleb Al-Abdulmohsen, a 50-year-old doctor from Saudi Arabia who lived in Bernburg and worked as a psychologist and psychiatrist in a correctional facility in a clinic in Bernburg. He was described by German authorities as "Islamophobic".
Taleb A. immigrated to Germany in March 2006, was recognized as a refugee in July 2016 and has a settlement permit and thus a residence permit.
According to India Today, Abdulmohsen is wanted by Saudi Arabia on charges related to terrorism and human trafficking of people from Saudi Arabia and Persian Gulf states to the European Union. Despite Saudi Arabia's extradition request, Germany granted him political asylum in 2016, citing concerns over his safety and rights if he were returned to Saudi Arabia. The German government refused to extradite him, citing a lack of due process in Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi Arabian government warned German security authorities about Abdulmohsen three times between November 2023 and September 2024.
Saudi officials said he was dangerous and a potential threat to Saudi diplomats. Germany dismissed the warning, viewing it as targeting against a dissident who said he had abandoned Islam which is a capital crime in Saudi Arabia.
Abdulmohsen has been described in media reports as an ex-Muslim opposed to Islam and Muslims.
Der Spiegel reported that he used his web forum wearesaudis.net and Twitter to help other Saudis escape to Germany. Abdulmohsen's X account was focused on anti-Islam themes and criticism of Islam and he congratulated Muslims who left the religion. He also described himself as a former Muslim and criticized German authorities for failing to combat the "Islamism of Europe" and supported the far-right AfD party. He was described as an activist who helped Saudi women flee their homeland and he appeared to be focused on his theory that "German authorities have been targeting Saudi asylum seekers."
Abdulmohsen appeared on the BBC News in 2019, showcasing his website intended to help asylum-seeking apostates, "especially from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region". Abdulmohsen shared pro-Israel content on the Internet.
In a 2019 interview with The Jerusalem Post, he stated that he spent 10 to 16 hours per day assisting apostates from the Middle East to claim asylum in Western countries. In a 45-minute video interview that appeared on RAIR Foundation, an anti-Muslim United States blog run by Amy Mek eight days before the attack, Abdulmohsen stated that the German state is conducting a "covert secret operation" to "hunt and destroy the lives" of Saudi ex-Muslims around the world, but at the same time Syrian jihadists are receiving asylum in Germany.
In the same interview, he said that he was not a right-winger, but a leftist, but at the same time explained that as a leftist he had come to the conclusion that the left were the "worst criminals on the planet". On Twitter, Abdulmohsen posted a machine gun with a US flag as a profile picture and conspiracy theories such as "Germany wants to Islamize Europe." Abdulmohsen also shared similar right-wing ideological content, including content from Alex Jones, Elon Musk and AfD politician Alice Weidel. According to The Guardian, he had "far right sympathies".
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said that the authorities can confirm that the suspected perpetrator was "evidently Islamophobic".
In May 2024, Abdulmohsen wrote, "I seriously expect to die this year. The reason: I will ensure justice at any cost. And the German authorities are hindering any peaceful path to justice." A few minutes before the attack, he posted more videos. In one of them, Abdulmohsen said, "The police themselves are the criminals. In this case, I hold the German nation, I hold the German citizens responsible for what is in store for me."
In another video before the attack, Abdulmohsen said, "Another reason why I hold German citizens responsible for the persecution I experience in Germany is the story of a USB stick stolen from my mailbox."
According to information from several public broadcasters and private media in Germany, people reported Abdulmohsen to the police several times because of threats of violence. According to public broadcaster ARD, Abdulmohsen was sentenced in 2013 by the Rostock District Court to 90 daily rates of ten euros each for threatening criminal offenses. The Federal Intelligence Service (BND) received a report from Saudi Arabia that Abdulmohsen had announced something "big" in Germany as early as 2023. The responsible state authorities are said to have followed up on this tip. German journalist Tim Rohn from Welt also shared on X that in September 2023, a Saudi woman who had been in contact with Abdulmohsen via the Internet attempted to warn the police in Berlin that Abdulmohsen wanted to kill 20 Germans. She erroneously sent her email to US police in Berlin, New Jersey and it was unclear what happened to the tip.
On 10 November 2025, Abdulmohsen's trial began at Landgericht Magdeburg, charged with six counts of murder and 338 counts of attempted murder, including 29 people who were not physically injured during the attack. The trial was held at a temporary courtroom, which finished construction on 24 September, to accommodate the court proceedings due to the large number of co-plaintiffs and members of the press. Abdulmohsen issued an admission of driving the car, and while he claimed to be willing to explain his motive, Abulmohsen's 90 minute-long statement on the first court date was described as "incoherent", which "jumped between religious and political themes as well as personal events", mostly talking about his involvement in women's rights in Saudi Arabia, as well as his hatred of Islam and German authorities.
He showed no remorse and offered no apology to the attending victims, several of whom left the court room over Abdulmohsen's increasingly disconnected statements, although he briefly broke into tears while addressing the parents of the 9-year-old killed in the attack.
On 26 June 2026, Abdulmohsen was found guilty of all counts and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Aftermath
Hundreds of people created a makeshift memorial with flowers, lit candles and toys, at the nearby St. John's Church. Magdeburg police urged citizens to stay home. Erfurt's Christmas market was cleared, while Halle's remained open with additional security. The New York City Police Department in the US also increased security at Christmas markets in response to the attack.
A memorial service for dead victims took place in Magdeburg Cathedral. Interior minister Nancy Faeser ordered flags lowered to half-staff at all federal buildings across the country. The Deutsche Fußball Liga (DFL) called on all sides of the top two divisions of German football to wear black armbands in memory of the victims and have minutes of silence in several Bundesliga games.
Publications such as Politico and The Wall Street Journal wrote that the attack could reinvigorate discussions of immigration in Germany ahead of the federal election in 2025. After a knife attack in Aschaffenburg on 22 January 2025 by a perpetrator allegedly from Afghanistan, in which a 41-year-old and a 2-year-old died, the Magdeburg car attack, along with stabbings in Mannheim and Solingen that had taken place earlier in 2024, was seen as reason for pre-election debates pivoting away from the state of the economy to migration and domestic security.
In parliamentary hearings on 30 December that had been announced by a senior lawmaker about a week earlier, whose participants included interior minister Nancy Faeser and the heads of the Federal Police, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), and the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), Faeser assured a thorough investigation. She pointed out that the suspect did not fit into a pre-existing pattern, but that there had been indications of psychological issues. She also said that it was still far too early to draw conclusions regarding how such indications should be assessed and taken into account in the future. Several members of parliament who were present at the hearing said that German authorities had received numerous notices about the suspect.