Suspect in Christmas market attack showed signs of mental illness, says German minister
The suspect in the deadly car-ramming attack on a German Christmas market showed signs of mental illness, making the incident even harder to prevent, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said on Monday. No motive has yet been established for the December 20 attack in Magdeburg that left five people dead and more than 200 wounded.
The German government, under fire for failing to prevent a deadly car-ramming attack on a Christmas market, argued on Monday that the tragedy would have been hard to prevent and said that the suspect appeared to be mentally disturbed.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser along with security and intelligence chiefs faced questioning by a parliamentary committee about the attack that killed five people and wounded more than 200, and on whether there had been missed clues and security lapses.
Faeser said no motive had yet been established for the December 20 attack in the eastern city of Magdeburg, where a Saudi man was arrested, but that “there are striking signs of a pathological psyche”.
She added that lessons must be learnt on how to track potential attackers who don’t fit conventional threat categories and who “are psychologically disturbed and... driven by confused conspiracy theories”.
The minister argued that “such attackers do not fit any threat profile” — such as far-right extremist or Islamist — and warned that German security services will need “other indicators and action plans” to deal with them in future.
Faeser said there were “tens of thousands of tweets” Abdulmohsen had sent over the years that were yet to be fully examined.
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