Christmas market attack suspect sent chilling three-word threat before rampage | World | News

The German Christmas market attack suspect “threatened to do something that would attract international attention” in a terrifying message issued in 2013.

In the following year, he was flagged as a potential threat according to a state interior minister.

The 50-year-old suspect issued the chilling statement in reference to the Boston Marathon bombings where three people were killed and hundreds were injured in the 2013 Islamic terrorist attack. State interior minister Christian Pegel told a press conference that this was due to a professional dispute around that time.

Mr Pegel said he was then fined after no evidence was found of Islamist tendencies or that he was preparing to commit such an act.

The suspect of the horrific attack on Friday evening is a Saudi citizen who arrived in Germany in 2006 – he worked as a doctor, specialising in psychiatry and psychotherapy. Due to privacy laws allowing his surname to be withheld, he has been named as Taleb A by German media.

Four women and nine-year-old André Gleissner died after a car drove into a crowd of shoppers at the market in Magdeburg on Friday evening. At least 200 people were also injured.

Eight years after living in Germany, the suspect was flagged as a potential threat with police holding a radicalisation review discussion with him following another incident.

Mr Pegel revealed in the press conference that Taleb A said “he would carry out actions that would attract international attention and that people would long remember” while trying to raise funding for his living expenses from a local authority.

He said he wouldn’t leave until his application was granted, threatening that he may be forced to take “further action”. According to the German minister, the suspect also said that “they would be responsible for his suicide”.

Taleb A was then warned to stop acting in this manner and committing such offences, with the authorities claiming they would keep a close eye on him.

The suspect now remains in custody after appearing before a judge on Saturday evening. He is being investigated for five counts of suspected murder and 205 counts of suspected attempted murder.