German authorities warned of market attack suspect last year

The suspect was, on Saturday evening, brought before a judge, who behind closed doors ordered that he be kept in custody pending a possible indictment

- Associated Press

MAGDEBURG: Germany (AP) German authorities received a warning last year about the suspected perpetrator in a car attack at a Christmas market, a government office said on Sunday as more details emerged about the five people killed in the attack.

"This was taken seriously, like every other of the numerous tips," the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees said on Sunday on X about the tip it said it received in the late summer of last year.

But the office also noted that it is not an investigative authority and that it referred the information to the responsible authorities, following the procedure in such cases. It gave no other details about the suspect or the nature of the warnings.

Police in Magdeburg, the central city where the attack took place, on Friday evening, said on Sunday that those who died were four women aged 45, 52, 67 and 75, as well as a 9-year-old boy they had spoken of a day earlier.