The state’s prime minister said: ‘This is a terrible event, especially now in the days before Christmas’
At least one person is dead and up to 80 people have been injured after an attack on the Magdeburg Christmas market in the central German state of Saxony-Anhalt.
A large number of rescue workers are on site after a car was driven at speed into crowds of people enjoying the market.
Government spokesman Matthias Schuppe told the German news site MDR that the driver has been arrested.
Photos from the scene show ambulances but the number of people injured has not yet been confirmed. The German newspaper Bild reported that between 60 and 80 people had been injured.
Magdeburg police have confirmed that at least one person was killed in the attack.
In a statement, they said that the market was closed and that “extensive police operations” were currently taking place.
Reiner Haseloff, who is prime minister of Saxony-Anhalt state, is on his way to Magdeburg, the state capital.
He said: “This is a terrible event, especially now in the days before Christmas.”
The UK Foreign Office recently issued an alert warning of possible attacks on markets in Germany and Belgium.
On its website, it said: “Terrorists are very likely to try to carry out attacks in Germany.
“Attacks could be indiscriminate, including in public places visited by foreign nationals such as restaurants and markets.”
Eight years ago, a truck driven by Anis Amri, a failed Tunisian asylum seeker with Islamist links, crashed into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people and injuring dozens of others.
This is a breaking news story and is being updated.