World’s richest man Elon Musk has slammed the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for the Christmas market in central Germany on Friday evening, December 20. The car driver rammed the vehicle into a large crowd of revellers killing at least two people and injuring more than 60 before he was arrested. The incident took place in Magdeburg, the state capital, 150 km (90 miles) west of Berlin.
Musk has called for the resignation of German chancellor Scholz. “Scholz should resign immediately,” Musk posted on X, adding: “Incompetent fool.”
Musk made a series of tweets in response to the attack. In one of the first tweets on the incident, Musk wrote: “Deliberate mass murder”. He responded to a video posted on social media from a position above the market that shows a car driving at speed through a crowd walking between two rows of market stalls. People can be seen knocked to the ground and running away.
Later responding to a post claiming that the German government refused to extradite the perpetrator of the Christmas market attack despite requests from the Saudi government, citing human rights concerns; Musk wrote “Wow, this is insane. Whoever refused to extradite a murderer deserves to be punished severely!”
Reiner Haseloff, premier of the state of Saxony-Anhalt said that the attacker was a 50-year-old male doctor from Saudi Arabia with permanent residency in Germany, where he had lived for almost two decades. The motive was unclear. The suspect was not known to German authorities as an Islamist, according to local broadcaster MDR. Eight years ago, Anis Amri, a Tunisian asylum seeker with Islamist links, reportedly rammed a truck into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people and injuring dozens of others.
Death toll may rise
According to German authorities the death toll could rise given the severity of some of the injuries.