CNN
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A driver who rammed a car into a crowded Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, killing at least five people and injuring more than 200, has been identified by authorities as a 50-year-old Saudi Arabian citizen who had lived in Germany for more than a decade and worked as a doctor.
Authorities are working to establish the motive of the suspect, named by a US activist group as Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, who had a history of making anti-Islam statements and said that he had helped people, particularly women, flee Saudi Arabia.
The chief of the Magdeburg Public Prosecutor’s office, Horst Walter Nopens, said that while his office needed more time to determine the motive, the suspect may have been unhappy with Germany’s treatment of Saudi refugees.
Nopens suggested the alleged attacker could face five counts of murder and 205 counts of attempted murder.
The suspect first came to Germany in 2006 and had permanent residency in the country, according to Tamara Zieschang, the interior minister of Saxony-Anhalt state, of which Magdeburg is the capital. Zieschang said the man worked as a doctor in Bernburg, a small town about 25 miles south of Magdeburg.
Reuters news agency released an image of the suspect, which was sourced from US-based activist group RAIR Foundation USA.
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