Pictured: Boy, nine, killed in German Christmas market attack along with four adults as grieving mother says: ‘Let my little teddy bear fly around the world again’

A nine-year-old boy killed in the brutal Christmas market attack in Germany this weekend has been pictured for the first time, as tributes flood in for the ‘little angel’.

André Gleißner tragically died when a car rammed into a massive crowd of shoppers in Magdeburg at around 7pm on Friday night. Four women aged 45 to 75 were also killed in the attack, while more than 200 people were injured. 

The suspect, 50-year-old Saudi doctor Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, has since been arrested and charged with five counts of murder as well as several counts of attempted murder and causing grievous bodily harm. 

André Gleißner’s mother, Désirée, wrote a heart wrenching post on Facebook: ‘Let my little teddy bear fly around the world again. André didn’t do anything to anybody. He was only with us on earth for nine years. Why you? Just why?

‘I don’t understand. Now you are with grandma and grandpa in heaven. They missed you very much, as much as we miss you here now. You will always live in our hearts. I promise you that.’

Beneath the post which has been liked over 152,000 times and share by more than 185,000 people, tributes for the young child have begun to pour in. 

One person who knew the little boy said: ‘It’s incomprehensible. André was just a little angel to everyone. He has enriched so many people in his short life with his kind nature and so much zest for life. 

‘My deepest sympathy to his wonderful family I wish you all a lot of strength and togetherness. I’m thinking about you guys.’ 

Another person wrote: ‘Desiree I don’t know words can help right now, we are shocked. I wish you a lot of strength and I’m hugging you so tight.’ 

A third wrote: ‘Our thoughts are with you. Fly little angel, you will not be forgotten! We wish you lots of strength during this difficult time! Feeling overwhelmed, our thoughts are with you guys.’

One mother commented that what happened was ‘unbelievable’. She said her daughter, who was friends with André, had asked her: ‘Why him?’, adding that they were thankful to got to meet the nine-year-old.

A second mother said: ‘He was such a nice boy… [My son] misses him.’

Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz joined the condemnation of the attack yesterday afternoon saying: ‘There is no more peaceful and cheerful place than a Christmas market. What a terrible act it is to injure and kill so many people there with such brutality.’ 

Al-Abdulmohsen was brought before a judge on Saturday evening, and police said: ‘The judge ordered pre-trial detention for five counts of murder, multiple attempted murder and multiple counts of dangerous bodily harm.’

The prosecutor said that the medic’s ‘dissatisfaction with the treatment of refugees from Saudi Arabia in Germany’ was part of the investigation as a possible motive for the attack.

Al-Abdulmohsen has lived in Germany since 2006 after arriving in the country as a refugee from Saudi Arabia, and has been practicing medicine in Bernburg, about 25 miles south of Magdeburg, officials said.

In 2013, he was sentenced by a German court for ‘disturbing the public peace by threatening to commit crimes’, according to Der Spiegel. Three years later, he applied for asylum in Germany and his application was approved within four months. 

Experts have warned that right-wing groups could attempt to exploit the tragic incident for their own ends as 700 furious hard-right protesters gathered in Magdeburg last night, with people holding a banner with the word ‘Remigration Now’ and so-called homeland flags. 

The protesters marched through Magdeburg shouting: ‘Anyone who doesn’t love Germany should leave Germany’, ‘Migration kills’ and ‘We must take back our cities, our villages and our homeland’. 

Some of the demonstrators, which were described by German tabloid Bild as right-wing extremists and hooligans, reportedly wore masked and were aggressive, resulting in minor scuffles with police. 

‘What also deeply shocks me is how your death is now being used by some people for political purposes,’ German DJ Jan Leyk wrote as part of a tribute to André Gleißner in a Facebook post, which was shared the boy’s mother Désirée.

Leyk added in the post: ‘Instead of mourning you with dignity and level-headedness, they use your fate to stir up hatred, construct guilty parties and make a name for themselves.’

Social media accounts falsely alleged al-Abdulmohsen was an Islamist terrorist shortly after the attack, but the German interior minister later identified the suspect as being Islamophobic himself. 

A harsh critic of Germany’s past welcome too many Muslim migrants, al-Abdulmohsen wrote on the platform X that he wished ex-chancellor Angela Merkel could be jailed for life or executed.

In 2015, Merkel implemented an ‘open door’ policy, which allow over a million asylum seekers to cross the border into Germany.

At last night’s protest in Magdeburg, a known neo-Nazi called Thorsten Heise reportedly stirred up the crowd by yelling: ‘Deport, deport, deport’ and ‘Resistance’.

Matthias Quent, Professor of Sociology at Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences, told EuroNews: ‘The region in general, eastern Germany, is a hotspot of far-right mobilisations. 

‘And we are facing election campaigns until the federal elections in February. And so this is not just a critical time because of Christmas and the trust that gets destroyed by such an attack but, also, regarding questions of disinformation and polarisation and the spread of hate that will and could happen over these kinds of attacks now.’

The exiled Saudi attacker had praised far-Right politicians for combating the ‘Islamisation’ of Europe and pledged to take ‘revenge’ over harassment of female refugees.

Al-Abdulmohsen had voiced support for Elon Musk, Tommy Robinson and Alternative for Germany, the hard-right anti-immigration party, trying to build connections to hard-right organisations in Germany and the UK.

Musk reposted a tweet by Nigel Farage which blamed the Christmas market attack on border policies.

And as the surging AfD party seeks to rally support in the run-up to Germany’s snap federal election, the chair pointedly asked ‘When will this madness end?’

Tempers are strained after it was revealed police were warned about the ‘unstable’ suspect in September last year, but did nothing more than take screenshots of his twisted online threats.

Officials told a press conference on Saturday that 205 people were injured in the attack, 41 of which have been hurt badly. 

Neurosurgeon Mahmoud Elenbaby said some 80 patients were brought to Magdeburg’s university hospital on Friday night. 

The suspect is currently being interviewed by police and it is believed he was working alone, he added. 

Describing himself as a former Muslim, the suspect shared dozens of tweets and retweets daily focusing on anti-Islam themes, criticizing the religion and congratulating Muslims who left the faith.

He also accused German authorities of failing to do enough to combat what he said was the ‘Islamism of Europe.’

Mourners lit candles and placed flowers outside a church near the market on the cold and gloomy day. Several people stopped and cried. 

A Berlin church choir whose members witnessed a previous Christmas market attack in 2016 sang Amazing Grace, a hymn about God’s mercy, offering their prayers and solidarity with the victims.

Chancellor Scholz and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser traveled to Magdeburg on Saturday, and a memorial service is to take place in the city cathedral in the evening.

As U.S. President Joe Biden said today that his team has been ‘in close touch’ with German officials following an attack at a Christmas market.

The violence shocked Germany and the city, bringing its mayor to the verge of tears and marring a festive event that’s part of a centuries-old German tradition. 

It prompted several other German towns to cancel their weekend Christmas markets as a precaution and out of solidarity with Magdeburg’s loss.

German officials said emergency services received their first call about the attack at 7:02pm local time and brought the situation under control by 7:05pm. 

They added that attacker drove into the market through a rescue entrance, where they were no barricades. 

Verified bystander footage distributed by the German news agency dpa showed the suspect’s arrest at a tram stop in the middle of the road. 

A nearby police officer pointing a handgun at the man shouted at him as he lay prone, his head arched up slightly. Other officers swarmed around the suspect and took him into custody.

Thi Linh Chi Nguyen, a 34-year-old manicurist from Vietnam whose salon is located in a mall across from the Christmas market, was on the phone during a break when she heard loud bangs and thought at first they were fireworks. 

She then saw a car drive through the market at high speed. People screamed and a child was thrown into the air by the car.

Shaking as she described the horror of what she witnessed, she recalled seeing the car bursting out of the market and turning right onto Ernst-Reuter-Allee street and then coming to a standstill at the tram stop where the suspect was arrested.

‘My husband and I helped them for two hours. He ran back home and grabbed as many blankets as he could find because they didn’t have enough to cover the injured people. And it was so cold,’ she said.

The market itself was still cordoned off Saturday with red-and-white tape and police vans every 50 meters (yards). Police with machine pistols guarded every entry to the market. Some thermal security blankets still lay on the street.