The suspect has been identified in local media reports as Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, the BBC understands. He is a 50-year-old psychiatrist who lives in Bernburg, around 40km (25 miles) south of Magdeburg.

Germany authorities have confirmed that four women - aged between 45 and 75 - and a nine-year-old boy were killed during Friday's horrific attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany - with the

Despite the suspect's many statements expressing hostility to Islam, the head of the AfD in Sachsen-Anhalt, Martin Reichardt, said in a statement "the attack in Magdeburg shows that Germany is being drawn into political and religious fanaticism that has its origins in another world".