Five people were killed and over 200 were injured when a car was driven through crowds at the Christmas market in Magdeburg in eastern Germany. The far-right Alternative for Germany held a rally in the city on Monday.

Despite the suspect's many statements expressing hostility to Islam, the head of the AfD in Sachsen-Anhalt, Martin Reichardt, said in a statement "the attack in Magdeburg shows that Germany is being drawn into political and religious fanaticism that has its origins in another world".

The officials said Riyadh warned the German authorities the suspected attacker, Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, a Saudi dissident who described himself as an ex-Muslim, had boasted on social media that “something big will happen in Germany”. It was unclear if police ever acted upon the warnings.

Saudi doctor, Taleb A., accused of the attack on the Christmas market in Magdeburg, was the subject of a speech by the leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD). She claimed that the attacker was a secret Islamist hiding in a non-Islamic society.