A car drove into a group of people at a Christmas market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg on Friday, leaving at least one person dead and between 60 and 80 people injured.
The driver of the car, reported to be a dark BMW, was arrested following the crash which took place at 7:04pm today, according to unidentified government officials in the state of Saxony-Anhalt who spoke to the dpa news agency.
Video footage too graphic to share appears to show the dark car careening into the dense crowd, leaving dozens of people lying on the floor.
Within seconds, countless revellers can be see fleeing for their lives in the wake of the crash.
Separate footage showed children crying loudly as several small crowds of people formed over those injured in the crash, in apparent attempts to help them.
The Magdeburg Christmas market is located on the Old Market, directly next to Magdeburg Town Hall near the River Elbe, and was closed by organisers following the incident.
Organisers have also asked people to leave the city centre.
Magdeburg, which is west of Berlin, is the state capital of Saxony-Anhalt and has about 240,000 inhabitants.
Saxony-Anhalt’s Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff said in the wake of the attack: ‘This is a terrible event, especially now in the days before Christmas.’
Haselhoff is said to be travelling to the city to bear witness to the aftermath of the attack.