Boy, nine, killed in Christmas market attack was ‘little teddy bear’
The nine-year-old boy killed in Friday’s Christmas market attack is now ‘with grandma and grandpa in heaven’, his mum said.
André Gleißner was one of five victims when a black BMW rammed through crowds celebrating the festive season. Of 200 victims, 41 people were seriously or very seriously injured.
Heartbroken mother Desiree posted on Facebook: ‘Let my little teddy bear fly around the world again. André didn’t do anything to anybody. He was only with us on Earth for nine years. Why you? Just why?
‘I don’t understand. Now you are with grandma and grandpa in heaven.
‘They missed you very much, as much as we miss you here now. You will always live in our hearts. I promise you that.’
More details of the victims were given today, with police saying in an update that the women killed ranged in age from 45 to 75.
A policeman stands protecting the crime scene of the shuttered Christmas market (Picture: Getty)
People light candles outside Magdeburg Cathedral after a memorial service for victims (Picture: AP)
Meanwhile, it emerged that German police had been warned about the suspect in Friday’s deadly Christmas market attack but did not see a ‘concrete threat’.
The alleged killer, a doctor named as Taleb A who had been granted asylum as a refugee from Saudi Arabia, was active on X as an anti-Islam activist who felt betrayed by Germany for letting in the ‘wrong’ refugees and not doing enough to help Saudi women.
Der Spiegel, an influential German news magazine, reported that their sources claimed Saudi Arabia’s secret service sent three separate tips about him to Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND) in 2023 and 2024.
Information flagged included tweets in which he wrote that Germany would pay a ‘price’ for its allegedly poor treatment of Saudi Arabian refugees.
The warning reached the State Criminal Police Office in Saxony-Anhalt, the province of which Magdeburg is the capital, but no concrete threat was identified.
The newspaper did not give further details of the warnings flagged to authorities.
The suspect’s X account is filled with tweets focusing on anti-Islam themes, while sharing congratulatory notes to Muslims who left the faith.
He was granted permanent residency in Germany, had been practising in psychiatry and psychotherapy at the state-owned Salus clinic in Bernburg, and had been helping criminals struggling with addiction.
The car that was rammed into a large crowd at a Magdeburg Christmas market (Picture: Reuters)
People attend a memorial service outside the cathedral close to the Christmas market (Picture: AP)
Police officers stand on the site of the car-ramming attack (Picture: Getty)
But he had often been absent from work with illness recently, Der Spiegel added.
They claimed he had become withdrawn and believed he was being followed by the Saudi Arabian secret service.
Taleb A was arreted and is under investigation on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and bodily harm.
Prominent German terrorism expert Peter Neumann said he had yet to come across a suspect in an act of mass violence with his profile.
‘After 25 years in this ‘business’ you think nothing could surprise you anymore.
‘But a 50-year-old Saudi ex-Muslim who lives in East Germany, loves the AfD and wants to punish Germany for its tolerance towards Islamists – that really wasn’t on my radar,’ Mr Neumann, the director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence at King’s College London, wrote on X.
Mourners lit candles and placed flowers outside a church near the market yesterday, with several people weeping as they looked at the scene.
Several other German towns cancelled their weekend Christmas markets as a precaution and out of solidarity.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz wrote on X: ‘My thoughts are with the victims and their relatives. We stand beside them and beside the people of Magdeburg.’
This week’s attack came eight years after an Islamic extremist drove a truck into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing 13 people and injuring many others. The attacker was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.
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