A man suspected of ramming a car into a packed German Christmas market, killing at least four people, is a Saudi doctor, anti-Islam activist and supporter of the hard-Right AfD.

The suspect, a 50-year-old man who moved to Germany in 2006, has posted long comments on social media claiming that German politicians are deliberately trying to “Islamicise” the country, citing his admiration for the hard-Right AfD party and saying that former Muslims face persecution in Europe.

On Friday evening, a BMW drove at full speed into a Christmas market in the city of Magdeburg that was teeming with shippers. The car sped for 400 metres through the crowd, killing four people, including a small child, and injuring at least 60 others.

The suspect was arrested at the scene. The German media have identified him as Taleb A., withholding his last name in line with privacy laws, and report that he was a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy.

Prominent German terrorism expert Peter Neumann said he had yet to come across a suspect in an act of mass violence with that profile.

“After 25 years in this ‘business’ you think nothing could surprise you anymore. But a 50-year-old Saudi ex-Muslim who lives in East Germany, loves the AfD and wants to punish Germany for its tolerance towards Islamists — that really wasn’t on my radar,” Neumann, the director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence at King’s College London, wrote on X.