3-Minute Christmas Market Rampage Shakes Germany

It took an attacker just three minutes to kill five people and wound hundreds by ramming an S.U.V. into a crowded holiday market on Friday night, stunning Germany and shattering the peace of its Christmas season.

By about 7 p.m. on Friday, the market, in the eastern city of Magdeburg, was packed with families and friends who had gathered under the glow of twinkling lights to celebrate the last workday before the holiday week.

Instead, the weekend began with horror. The attacker, described by officials as a 50-year-old Saudi doctor who had been living in Germany for nearly two decades, slowly maneuvered a rented car through a gap in the security barriers designed for emergency vehicles, then steered for the heart of the celebration at the old market square.

He accelerated, trying to hurt as many people as possible, the police said.

After maiming hundreds, he aimed to escape through a gap on the other end of the square, but was stopped by traffic. Police officers swiftly surrounded the vehicle, forcing the driver to the ground as they apprehended him.

Among the five victims were a 9-year-old child and four adults. More than 200 others were wounded, 41 of them with injuries so severe that the authorities have warned that the death toll could rise in the coming days. There were so many wounded that some had to be flown to hospitals in other states.

The local Magdeburg authorities, who spoke at news conference on Saturday in City Hall, identified the attacker only as Taleb A., in keeping with Germany’s privacy laws, and said his motive was being investigated.