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As we previously reported, a GoFundMe page was created to collect donations for the family of nine-year-old victim Andre Gleissner.
The page, set up by a family friend, was initially closed for donations after almost €50,000 was raised.
But the organizer in a new update reported that it had reopened the donation page after receiving a flood of requests from the public.
They said Andre’s family is planning to pass on a large part of the donations to the other victims who died or were injured in the attack.
More than 70,000 euros have already been raised.
After the carnage at the Magdeburg Christmas market, there are now questions about whether something was missed.
Could they have arrested the man accused of killing five other people and injuring more than two hundred others?
These questions arise after it was revealed that Taleb A, as the German media calls him, had already been reported to the authorities.
Read what our Europe correspondent, Siobhan Robbins, has to say below. . .
Heavily armed police will patrol the site of Friday’s attack.
A cordon remains in place while investigations continue.
Two days after the fatal attack, debris remains are scattered at the scene in Magdeburg.
Police officers guard the Christmas market area, where a car was driven into crowds celebrating the festive season on Friday evening.
A damaged bar table still lies in front of the concrete barricades, next to a torn wrapper from a syringe and a fan.
Unused pressure bandages brought by paramedics sit on top of a rubbish bag.
Some belongings were abandoned by market visitors, including a single black child’s glove and a beige boot.
A bloody handkerchief is thrown to the ground.
A German investigative journalist has said there were “quite a few warnings” about suspect Taleb A before he allegedly killed five people in this week’s attack.
Tim Roehn, Welt’s head of investigations, told Sky News that the suspect was “not a stranger” and “had undergone this radicalization in plain sight. ”
He said the alleged attacker had “gained some recognition as a critic of Islam” and an opponent of the regime in Saudi Arabia, and had given media interviews to big news outlets.
“Between all those statements there are repeated messages that Germany would pay a huge price because he and other secular Arabs have been betrayed, in his words,” Mr Roehn said.
“He talked about dying this year, he talked about taking revenge.
“It’s shocking to see what this user said publicly before this attack occurred. ”
Roehn said his team also discovered a “strange email” sent to Berlin police warning about Taleb A.
The user who sent the email from Saudi Arabia had warned the suspect that he was in “imminent danger,” the journalist said.
They had provided police with his name and address, but the email did not arrive with police in the German capital of Berlin – instead it was mistakenly sent to a small village called Berlin in New Jersey, America.
It is unclear whether the email was forwarded to the German government or not.
Sky News has not seen the email and therefore cannot independently verify details about it.
Mr Roehn said German federal police had been looking into Taleb A a few months ago and had considered approaching him.
However, they later decided he was not a threat and “left him alone”.
Two firefighters paid tribute to André Gleissner, the nine-year-old boy who died in the attack.
The Schöppenstedt chimney brigade reported that Andre is a member of the children’s chimney brigade in Warle.
The nine-year-old boy “left us too soon,” he added.
“Our thoughts are with Andrés’ relatives, who we also want to support during this difficult time,” it said, sharing a donation appeal.
The Lower Saxony youth fire brigade also paid tribute to Andre, saying: “Our condolences go out to his family, his friends and everyone who was close to him.
“We stand by his side in those difficult times and express our deepest sympathy. “
A German official has said police previously had contact with the suspect accused of driving into crowds at a Christmas market and killing five people.
Christian Pegel, interior minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, said the government’s data was valid on the suspect, identified in German media as Taleb A.
The 50-year-old, whose last trip is withheld under German law, stayed in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania between 2011 and January 2016.
Mr Pegel said this was likely part of his training to qualify as a specialised doctor.
They then detailed two incidents in which the suspect had contact with police.
The suspect “referred to the Boston Marathon bombing”
In April 2023, Taleb A was charged with “disturbing public order by threatening to commit criminal acts”.
Mr Pegel said this was probably “in the context of a dispute with the Chamber of Physicians”, but the suspect had “threatened to do something that would attract international attention” and referred to the Boston Marathon bombing.
Three other people were killed in the 2013 attack when two pressure cooker bombs exploded at the marathon finish line.
An arrest warrant was issued to search Taleb A’s apartment, but “no evidence of any kind involving actual agreements to commit such an act nor any evidence of Islamist tendencies has been discovered. ”
Doctor said he would do something ‘people would long remember’
In an incident the following year, the suspect contacted the Stralsund public government to request monetary assistance to cover his living expenses.
Mr Pegel said: “The information that we have is that while trying to obtain this funding, in seeking to obtain support for his request, he said he would carry out actions that would attract international attention and that people would long remember.”
He then took a stand with the suspect in a discussion about radicalization screening, which is used when police monitor a user who possibly poses a potential risk.
He then said the government would be watching him, Pegel said.
On Friday evening, a Saudi doctor allegedly drove his car into a packed Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg.
Four women and a nine-year-old boy died and another two hundred people were injured.
Here’s what we know about what happened.
How did it develop?
Shortly after 7:00 p. m. , a dark-colored BMW rental pounced on the crowd that had gathered at the Magdeburg Christmas market.
Witnesses said they saw the car racing towards other people near the town hall, traveling in a zigzag pattern for about 400m.
Thi Linh Chi Nguyen, who works at a salon near the market, said she was talking on the phone during a break when she heard a loud bang that she initially thought was fireworks.
Then he saw a car driving through the market at full speed.
People screamed and a child was thrown into the air through the vehicle, he said.
The 34-year-old remembers seeing the car leave the market, turn right onto Ernst-Reuter-Allee and then stop at a tram stop where the suspect was arrested.
Who are the victims?
Police said the victims were four women, ages 45, 52, 67 and 75, and a nine-year-old boy named Andre Gleissner.
Another two hundred people were injured, adding 41 believed to be in serious condition.
They are in several hospitals in Magdeburg.
Who is the suspect?
Several German media outlets have identified the suspect as 50-year-old Taleb A, withholding his last name in line with German privacy laws.
They say he was a doctor who specialised in psychiatry and psychotherapy and had lived in Germany since 2006.
The suspect, from Saudi Arabia, is being investigated for murder, manslaughter and assault.
Social media posts shared through the suspect describe him as a former Muslim.
He has anti-Muslim views and has been highly critical of German authorities, expressing support for the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
People have come out to pay their respects to the five killed in this week’s attack in Magdeburg.
Among those who paid tribute, Constanze Schroete said she was “deeply shocked. ”
“It costs me dearly. I’m horrified that something like this could happen,” he said.
Ms Schroete said it “makes no sense at all” how the attack could have been carried out despite the introduction of bollards and safety precautions.
Another mourner, Michael Klippel, said: “I think it’s bad. Our daughter sent me this message on Friday night and I thought she was there too.
“I was shocked. I was exhausted. I was devastated. It’s incomprehensible. It’s incomprehensible. ”