Six days after the Magdeburg attack, the police have published the exact route of the attacker, who killed five people and injured 200 on the city’s Christmas market. There are still false representations of the route the suspect took on the Magdeburg Christmas market on Friday evening, the investigators said.
According to the investigation, the suspect’s vehicle left the Ernst-Reuter-Allee on December 20, coming from the Strombrücke direction and heading towards the main train station. At the traffic light at the Ernst-Reuter-Allee/Breiter Weg intersection, the suspect turned right into the pedestrian area at 19:02, immediately behind the pedestrian crossing, and drove onto the sidewalk. In doing so, the suspect drove between a pedestrian crossing and a concrete block barrier. The suspect drove on the sidewalk, between the MVB kiosk and the former McDonald’s, in the direction of the Old Market.
After that, he drove approximately 110 meters along the Breiten Weg sidewalk (between the house wall and the Christmas market stalls) to the entrance of the Old Market pedestrian area. “The suspect did not turn into the Breiten Weg and did not drive over the tram tracks towards the Old Market pedestrian area” the police said.
From the Breiten Weg sidewalk, the suspect turned right onto the Old Market and drove over the Christmas market in the direction of the town hall. Between the Christmas market stalls, there are alleys for visitors of the Christmas market, and this area is one of the main areas for the visitor flows of the Christmas market. The suspect drove through the right alley between the Christmas market stalls on the Old Market. The route was approximately 250 meters in the Old Market area, the police said.
Subsequently, the suspect turned right from the Old Market onto the sidewalk and drove approximately 85 meters in the direction of the Ernst-Reuter-Allee, again not over the Hartstraße and the tram tracks, but over the sidewalk, the police emphasized. The suspect then turned right into the Ernst-Reuter-Allee in the direction of the main train station. At the Ernst-Reuter-Allee/Breiter Weg intersection, he had to stop because of the red light, with the suspect’s vehicle on the left turn lane as the second halted vehicle at the red light.
At 19:03, a police officer from the state police reserve spoke to the suspect from the vehicle and asked him to lie down on the ground. He did so. Shortly after, more forces from the state police reserve arrived. The suspect was arrested by the police forces present on the scene at 19:05, the police said.