A German official says the suspect in the Christmas market attack is showing signs of mental illness

The German government is being criticized for failing to prevent A Fatal ramming attack At the Christmas market on Monday, he said it would have been difficult to prevent the tragedy from happening, and he said so The suspect He seems mentally disturbed.

Interior Minister Nancy Vizer and security and intelligence leaders faced questioning by a parliamentary committee about the attack, which killed five people and injured more than 200, and whether there was missing evidence and security lapses.

Weiser said that a motive had not yet been determined for the attack that occurred on December 20 in the eastern city of Magdeburg, where a Saudi-born doctor who had lived in Germany for years was arrested, but she said, “There are glaring signs of a psychological illness.” “

Lessons need to be learned about how to track, she added potential attackers who do not fit traditional threat categories and who “suffer from psychological distress and… are driven by deranged conspiracy theories.”

The minister said that “such attackers do not fit into any form of threat” – such as right-wing or Islamist extremists – and warned that German security services would need “other indicators and action plans” to deal with them in the future.

The suspect, referred to by German officials as Talib A., has been identified BBC News And the French News Agency, Bassem Talib Al-Abdul Mohsen. He came to Germany in 2006 and was granted refugee status 10 years later.

Police arrested him at the scene of the attack in which a car was used as a weapon, a method previously used in jihadist attacks.

In 2016, an Islamic extremist At a crowded Christmas market in Berlin with a truck, killing 13 people and wounding dozens. The attacker was killed in an exchange of gunfire days later. In the same year, As claimed by ISIS Responsibility after another attacker killed 86 people in a truck attack in the United States French city of Nice.

By contrast, Abdul Mohsen has in the past expressed strongly anti-Islamic views and far-right sympathies in his social media posts, as well as anger at Germany for allowing in too many Muslim war refugees and other asylum seekers.

Visser said there are “tens of thousands of tweets” posted by the suspect over the years that have not yet been fully examined.

“This explains why everything has not been put on the table yet,” she added. “Who knew which clues and what was passed and when had to be carefully clarified.”

Reuters reported that he posted a rambling comment on

Abdul Mohsen, 50, is the only suspect in the attack in which a rented BMW sports car plowed into a crowd of revelers at high speed, leaving a bloody trail of carnage.

Prosecutors said he was detained on five counts of murder and 205 counts of attempted murder, but so far not on terrorism-related charges.

The Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt, Rainer Haselof, described the attack at the time as a “lone wolf attack.”

According to media reports citing unnamed German security sources, the suspect had been treated for mental illness in the past and tests confirmed that he had been using drugs on the night of his arrest. German media investigations into Abdel Mohsen’s past and his social media posts found expressions of anger, frustration, and threats of violence against German citizens and politicians.

German police said they contacted Abdel Mohsen in September 2023 and October 2024, then repeatedly tried to meet him again but failed in December.

According to Reuters, Holger Münch, head of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), said that Abdul Mohsen “made insults and even threats. But he was not known for committing violent acts.”

Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who faces a general election in February, told the news site t online Officials said they would “examine very carefully whether there were any failures on the part of the authorities” and whether any evidence was lost in the run-up to the attack.

Saudi Arabia said it had repeatedly warned Germany about Abdul Mohsen, but according to Reuters, police said they found the accusations too vague.

before February electionsThe bloodshed at a Christmas market has reignited a heated debate over immigration and security, after deadly knife attacks this year blamed on Islamist extremists.

After Monday’s session, MP Konstantin Kohli of the liberal Liberal Democrats said, “Federal and state authorities know this perpetrator.” But Kohli said that no authority had connected all the dots, and that “we do not have a complete list of all contacts with authorities as of today.”

Getting a fuller picture of all the data would have been nice, but it likely “did not prevent” the attack, Weisser said.

MP Gottfried Corio from the far-right, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party was the most vocal in his criticism.

“Everything was expected for everyone,” he accused. “We have hundreds of dangerous people in this country, and we’re letting them roam.

“What we need are deportations, and instead naturalization. What we need now is a change in security policy in this country.”