Image source, Getty Images

It’s been a difficult 24 hours for the central German city of Magdeburg, as people continue to come to terms with the deadly attack on the annual Christmas market.

Five people, including a nine-year-old boy, died and 205 people were injured after a car ploughed into the crowd on Friday evening.

Officials said earlier today the suspected attacker used a rescue exit with no barricades to access the market and drove for three minutes before police stopped and arrested him.

The suspect, named as 50-year-old doctor Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, is a Saudi refugee who arrived in Germany in 2006 and who openly campaigned against Islam and criticised Berlin’s immigration stance, according to German media.

BBC Security Correspondent Frank Gardner says a source close to the Saudi government reported Germany had been informed of Abdulmohsen’s “very extreme views”.

Visiting the attack scene this morning, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the attacker must be punished as he vowed officials would investigate “in depth”.

And as authorities keep their cards close to their chests when it comes to details of the ongoing investigation, locals have come together to pay their own tribute to the victims and the injured – inundating the now-closed Magdeburg Christmas market and city cathedral with flowers, candles and messages of support.

We’ll shortly be ending our coverage for the day but you can read the latest updates on this developing story here.

Editing the page today were Tinshui Yeung and Rorey Bosotti while your writers were Damien McGuinness and Bethany Bell in Magdeburg, Jessica Parker in Berlin and Imogen James, Rachel Flynn and Lana Lam in London.

BBC's Foreign Correspondent Bethany Bell is still speaking to locals after the memorial service.

She speaks with Tatiana, a Ukrainian national who says the violence and chaos of the attack reminded her of the war back in her home country.

"It was like flashbacks, actually, because I thought oh my god, it's happening everywhere, you cannot be safe anywhere," she says.

"I came her to share this horrific moment with people here, because I think the sense of community is very important after such an act. Because, I feel like we need to be together in this moment."

We've just been hearing from another witness of yesterday's attack at the Christmas market in Magdeburg.

Gianni Warzecha tells the BBC he was spending the evening out with his girlfriend and her family when the attack unfolded.

"Suddenly there was a rumbling and the sound of shattered glass," he says. "People began to panic. I was next to where it happened. For me it was just the sound first."

Warzecha says he and other members of the public immediately stepped in to help administer first aid to the injured.

"It took a few minutes for first paramedics to arrive, but it wasn’t enough because there were already 200 people hurt," he adds. "Most of the first aid was done by people there."

Damien McGuinness
Berlin correspondent

The angry shouts at high-ranking visiting politicians certainly show that some people are blaming the country’s leaders.

And certainly the Berlin Christmas market attack in 2016 did shift the political debate on migration.

The attacker was an asylum seeker with links to Islamist extremism whose application had been rejected. At the time Germany was taking in unprecedented numbers of refugees and migrants — 1.5 million people in 2015 and 2016, mostly from the Middle East.

Mostly there was a feeling of welcome in mainstream society but this attack, and a number of other terror arracks linked to migrants, shifted the political debate and contributed to an increasingly hostile attitude towards migration in some parts of society.

The far-right AfD“s poll numbers surged and in 2017 the party entered Germany‘s national parliament for the first time. This time round too, within hours of the attack, some AfD politicians were posting anti-migrant comments online.

This attack is though very different. The suspected perpetrator is a 50-year-old Saudi doctor, who has been in Germany for almost 20 years.

He doesn’t appear so much as anti-migrant, but rather if anything anti-Islam and possible even supportive of far-Right ideology.

German Minister Nancy Faeser said it was too early to speculate why the suspect had carried out the attack but that "the one thing" she could confirm was that he had expressed an "Islamophobic" stance.

Jessica Parker
BBC News Berlin correspondent

There was speculation, immediately after Friday night’s awful events, about what it could mean for Germany’s political landscape.

Prior attacks, particularly August’s mass stabbing in the city of Solingen, fuelled a fraught debate about immigration, a signature issue for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland.

The Syrian man arrested in Solingen had suspected ties to the Islamic State group.

In this case, the suspect – a refugee from Saudi Arabia – had apparently been an outspoken critic of Islam and Europe's handling of immigration.

More details about the attack - and its impact - will emerge over time. But one immediate consequence could be that it contributes to a sense of insecurity that’s hanging over Germany.

It comes as the country’s economy is in the doldrums while the coalition government has collapsed, meaning snap elections in February.

Bethany Bell
Foreign Correspondent, reporting from Magdeburg

Locals have been gathering outside the now shut-down Christmas market in Magdeburg to pay their tribute to the victims of yesterday's attack.

Elvira Weber, 64, has joined dozens of other locals outside the now closed-off market to pay tribute to the five victims and the hundreds injured.

“It is a big pain that everyone has here. This is my hometown and I lived away in Hamburg for 30 years but just came back," she says. "But now I think about leaving again. We have such a big pain here.”

She says she was at the Christmas market an hour before the attack happened: "It was just luck. I just simply had so much luck.

"The moment I was at home I heard what had happened. I am born and raised in Magdeburg - it just hurts so much”

A memorial service at Magdeburg cathedral for victims of the Christmas market attack has finished a short time ago.

The solemn service was attended by families of the victims, emergency workers and government officials including the German chancellor.

As the service took place inside, hundreds of people gathered outside the cathedral to hold a vigil, laying flowers and candles as tributes to the victims.

Demonstrators also crowded outside the cathedral, with some holding signs saying "The blood sticks to your hands!".

Image source, EPA

Image source, EPA

Image source, EPA

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

It's been a little over 24 hours since an attack at a crowded Christmas market in Magdeburg in central Germany, in which five people were killed and more than 200 others were injured.

Here's what we know so far:

• Five people, including a nine-year-old boy, have been killed after a car drove into a crowd of people at a busy Christmas market on Friday evening
• Police have arrested a suspect - named as Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, a 50-year-old psychiatrist from Saudi Arabia - who they believe acted alone

• German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says that attack will be investigated "in depth" with Germany's interior minister saying the suspect had "Islamophobic" views
• Authorities say Abdulmohsen was able to enter the market as he used a route reserved for emergency services. They plan to charge the suspect with murder and attempted murder but his motive remains unclear
• Large crowds have gathered outside a cathedral in Magdeburg where a memorial service was held for the victims, with a sea of flowers, candles and teddy bears laid in tribute
• Uncertainty surrounds the motives of the suspect as our security correspondent Frank Gardner writes

Image source, Getty Images

The president of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, is in Magdeburg this evening to attend the memorial service for the victims of last night's Christmas market attack.

Steinmeier has been pictured inside Magdeburg Cathedral alongside Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who visited the site of the attack earlier this morning.

Image source, EPA

A German politician who lives near the Christmas market where yesterday's attack occurred has shared her experience of the moments before the tragedy.

"It was Friday night," says Nicole Anger, a member of the state parliament in Saxony-Anhalt representing The Left party.

"So everybody was looking forward to the weekend, wanting to spend time with family and friends at the market, have some drinks, some food, some talk," she tells the BBC, "and just having a good time, lots of joy."

Following the attack, which has claimed the lives of five people, Anger says, "we just have to look at the situation now, all the people who were injured, who are looking for relatives, and then we have to think about the next year."

We're now getting the first images of memorial services being held in Germany tonight for the victims of yesterday's attack in Magdeburg.

Below are pictures of a service at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in the German capital of Berlin.

A memorial service is also being held in Magdeburg this evening and we'll bring you the latest from that event as soon as we get updates.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

The university hospital in Magdeburg has joined up with the German Red Cross to hold an extra blood donation session on Monday, 23 December.

"In this challenging time, every blood donation counts!" says the announcement on Facebook, adding: "Thank you for your solidarity!"

In an earlier Facebook post, the hospital praised the "extraordinary dedication" of its staff. "Many of you responded immediately, providing support in the emergency department, the operating rooms, the wards, logistics, psychosocial assistance, or on-site as first responders.

"Your efforts saved lives and brought hope during a dark hour," it reads.

Image source, Reuters

US President Joe Biden says his team has been "in close touch" with German officials following the attack in Magdeburg on Friday night.

"The US extends our deepest condolences to the people of Germany grieving the terrible attack," he says in a statement.

"No community - and no family - should have to endure such a despicable and dark event, especially just days before a holiday of joy and peace," the president adds.

During a minute's silence at a football match in west Germany on Saturday, a man was heard shouting "Germany for the Germans". Fans quickly responded with "Nazis out!"

The silence was observed before a third division game in the western city of Essen, in memory of the victims of the Magdeburg attack.

According to local media Rheinische Post, Essen police say the fan was immediately removed from venue Stadion Essen after the racist shout.

The Deutsche Fussball Liga (DFL) announces that a minute's silence will be observed at all football matches in the top two tiers of the Bundesliga this weekend to honour the victims of yesterday's attack.

"German football is shocked by this attack, and its thoughts are with the victims and their families at this tough time," the DFL says in a statement.

"We also wish the injured a speedy recovery."

The DFL is also suggesting that all teams wear black armbands during this weekend's matches.

Image source, EPA

Frank Gardner
Security correspondent

As more details emerge into this attack and on the suspect accused of carrying it out, some unexpected angles are coming to light.

A source close to the Saudi government tells me it sent four official notifications known as "notes verbal" to the German authorities, warning them about what it said were "the very extreme views" held by Taleb al-Abdulmohsen.

The source, who asked not to be named, said these notifications contained details about him. Three were sent to Germany’s intelligence agencies and one to the foreign ministry but all, the source said, were ignored.

Reports have emerged in the German media of the suspect’s campaigns against his country’s official religion, Islam, and of his fury at the policy of his adopted home, Germany, in letting in such huge numbers of Muslim refugees from the Middle East.

He is also reported to have tried to help young Saudi women and critics of the government there escape from Saudi Arabia and seek asylum in Germany.

In the past there have been cases reported of agents of the Saudi government carrying out surveillance on dissident Saudis living in Germany and Canada and attempts to bring them back to Saudi Arabia by force.

As night falls in Magdeburg, more flowers, candles, and teddy bears are added to the tributes.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

In the post below, we named the suspect as Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, a 50-year-old psychiatrist living in Bernburg, around 40km (25 miles) south of Magdeburg.

He is currently being questioned and prosecutors expect to charge him with murder and attempted murder soon, according to the head of the local prosecutor's office.

The motive behind the attack is still unclear, but authorities believe he acted alone.

Originally from Saudi Arabia, he arrived in Germany in 2006 and in 2016 was recognised as a refugee.

Germany's interior minister Nancy Faeser tells reporters that it is "clear to see" that the suspect holds "Islamophobic" views.

The suspect is an outspoken critic of Islam on social media, and has promoted conspiracy theories regarding an alleged plot by German authorities to islamicise Europe.

German media Der Spiegel said a complaint was filed against al-Abdulmohsen a year ago over statements which officials concluded did not constitute a concrete threat.

Taleb al-Abdulmohsen has been named in local media as the suspect in the Magdeburg attack, the BBC understands.

Earlier, Magdeburg officials mentioned that the investigation is still under way and more updates will follow.

Image source, Getty Images

As promised, here are all the key points from the news conference:

• A nine-year-old is among the five killed. The suspect is set to be prosecuted for five murders and grievous bodily harm
• The first emergency call came in at 19:02 local time on Friday. Initially, police thought it was an accident, but after emergency calls reached double digits, they opened the case as an attack
• The attacker drove through a rescue entrance, where there are no barricades to allow easy access for ambulances and rescue vehicles. The attacker was driving for three minutes before being stopped by police
• Officials are still working to clarify the motive, but the prosecutor mentions it's linked to "dissatisfaction with the treatment of refugees from Saudi Arabia in Germany"

At the end of the news conference, the prosecutor also said that it's still unclear whether this was a terror attack.