Nine-year-old among five killed in attack on German Christmas market

People left floral wreaths to the victims at the site.

A nine-year-old child and four adults have been killed after a car drove into a crowd at a Christmas market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg.

More than 200 people were injured - at least 41 critically - in the attack on Friday evening.

A black BMW SUV ploughed 400 metres through the crowded market in an attack that lasted about three minutes.

The suspect has been named in local media as Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, a 50-year-old Saudi citizen who arrived in Germany in 2006 and had worked as a doctor.

Prosecutor Horst Walter Nopens said on Saturday that the investigation was ongoing but suggested the background to the crime "could have been disgruntlement with the way Saudi Arabian refugees are treated in Germany".

The suspected attacker has no known links to Islamist extremism. His social media and posts appear to suggest he had been critical of Islam.

A source close to the Saudi government told the BBC it sent four official notifications known as "Notes Verbal" to German authorities, warning them about what they said were "the very extreme views" held by al-Abdulmohsen.

The source, who asked not to be named, said these notifications were ignored.

However, another experienced counter-terrorism expert said the Saudis may be mounting a disinformation campaign to discredit someone who tried to help young Saudi women seek asylum in Germany. - BBC News