Here's what is known about the alleged Magdeburg Christmas ...

The suspect in a deadly ramming at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg is believed to be a 50-year-old Saudi refugee who declared himself an atheist and "anti-Islam".

German media have named the suspect as Taleb Jawad al-Abdulmohsen, a psychiatrist from Bernburg, near Magdeburg.

Authorities have not named him but confirmed a Saudi-born doctor is under investigation and that the motive was not clear.

He was arrested next to the car used for the attack, and is suspected of deliberately driving it into the crowd, killing five and injuring more than 200.

Police cordoned off the car of the suspect in the ramming attack. (Reuters: Axel Schmidt)

The suspect came from a Shiite family in the village of Hofuf in the predominantly Shiite province of al-Ahsa, in the east of Saudi Arabia, AFP reports.

He arrived in Germany in 2006 and was granted refugee status 10 years later, according to German media and a Saudi activist.

He practised as a psychiatrist Bernburg, in the region of Saxony-Anhalt, where Magdeburg is the capital.

In an interview with the German newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau several years ago, he said he had been threatened with death for the abandonment of his religious beliefs.

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the suspect's Islamophobia was clear to see, but she declined to comment on the motive.

On social media, the suspect portrayed himself as a victim of persecution who had renounced Islam and decried what he said was the Islamisation of Germany.

Posts on the suspect's X account, verified by Reuters, suggested he supported anti-Islam and far-right parties, including the Alternative for Germany (AfD).

He had also criticised Germany for its handling of Saudi refugees.

In an unpublished interview with AFP from 2022 for an unrelated story, al-Abdulmohsen presented himself as "a Saudi atheist", and said that young Saudis were not only fleeing the government but "are fleeing Islam".

"Strict Islamic upbringing is the cause of all the problems of Muslims, especially women," he said.

The house of the Saudi doctor that police are investigating over the Magdeburg Christmas market attack. (Reuters: Axel Schmidt)

The alleged perpetrator appeared in a number of media interviews in 2019, including with German newspaper FAZ and the BBC.

In those media appearances, he spoke of his work as an activist helping Saudi Arabians and people who had turned away from Islam to flee to Europe.

"There is no good Islam," he told FAZ at the time.

A Saudi source told Reuters that Saudi Arabia had warned German authorities about the suspect after he posted extremist views on his X account that threatened peace and security.

A German security source said Saudi authorities had sent several tips in 2023 and 2024 and that these had been passed on to the relevant security authorities.

A risk assessment conducted last year by German state and federal criminal investigators came to the conclusion that the man posed "no specific danger", the Welt newspaper reported, citing security sources.

Germany's domestic and foreign intelligence agencies both declined to comment on the investigation.

The driver used emergency exit points to slowly navigate the vehicle towards the market. (AP Photo: Michael Probst)

The driver used emergency exit points to slowly navigate the vehicle towards the market, a city police official told reporters.

That was before the driver picked up speed and ploughed through the crowd at the Christmas market.

Those killed were a nine-year-old child and four adults, Magdeburg city official Ronni Krug said.

Another 200 people were injured, with 41 of them with either serious or critical injuries.

"I don't know about you, but I associate the Christmas market with mulled wine and bratwurst, and yesterday people died in this area. Others are fighting for their lives," Mr Krug said.

Authorities closed the market for the remainder of the season.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited the city the following day, where he laid a white rose at a church.

"What a terrible act it is to injure and kill so many people with such brutality," he said.

ABC/Wires