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At Least One Dead, Up To 80 Hurt After Car Plows Into Crowd At Christmas Market In Germany. Aired 3:45-4p ET

Aired December 20, 2024 - 15:45   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[15:45:19]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: We continue to monitor breaking news from Germany, where a car has plowed through a Christmas market in Magdeburg. This is west of Berlin. Local emergency services are now calling this an attack.

At least one person reported dead. Some 60 to 80 people injured. Local media are saying the driver of the car has been arrested. Police have implemented extensive security measures at the scene.

Joining me now is Michael Alcazar. He's a former NYPD detective, now a professor at John Jay College of Political Justice.

They're calling this an attack already. We don't know the motive of a potential attacker. We have seen, though, in the past, attacks on Christmas markets in Germany. There was one some eight years ago that was deadly.

Tell us, as you look at the circumstances here, what's your best assessment of what took place?

MICHAEL ALCAZAR, RETIRED NYPD DETECTIVE: Yeah, absolutely. It's definitely a soft target if this in fact is a terrorist act. I'm watching the images just like everybody else. And it looks like the perimeter wasn't very secure. It's very open.

There's an open road where you can pick up a lot of speed. The stores are very similar to, like, Bryant Park in New York City. There are tents and small wooden shops and very wide like, you know, New York City is like pretty much barricaded normally.

And I don't think the German police were prepared for this. They should have blocker vehicles. They should have cement barriers, especially since it's happened before. So, you know, it's definitely a soft target and a motivated individual took advantage of the situation, sadly. And I heard one person already passed, and now several people injured.

SCIUTTO: I mean, the difficulty though with soft targets, right, is that you can't harden every soft target, every Christmas market. I was walking in a Christmas market in New York City, in Union Square the other day. It's virtually impossible to harden every target, is it not? ALCAZAR: Yeah, of course. You know, especially in a city like New

York and I'm sure in Germany, where they have all these markets popping up everywhere. But, you know, if you look at New York City, we have like these planters that look like they're just for plants, but they're specifically designed to limit vehicle traffic. Like if somebody wants to drive up.

So when I'm looking at the images over at the German market, though, you know, it's -- it's wide. The walkways for the pedestrians are wide, its dense with people.

And again, we had a motivated offender that clearly seems to clearly have targeted this area for maximum casualty. And, I'm sure once the police -- the police officers made the arrest, they're going to interrogate him and find out if what his motivation was, if there were any other actors he's working with.

Are there any other planned attacks? That's what I would look into as an investigator over there.

SCIUTTO: There was another recent plot to attack a Christmas market in Europe, which was foiled days before. Given that we have seen attacks like this before, well, one going back to 2016. In Germany, that's eight years ago, and that was at the height of the threat from a group including ISIS, can you give us a sense of if this is tied to a particular group?

Again, we should caution we don't know the motivation of the attacker here, though. As we noted, local media say the driver of the car responsible has been arrested. And as we noted, police have said this is an attack which presumes that it was a deliberate act. What kinds of groups might have such a target in mind?

ALCAZAR: Well, I'm sure their investigators are combing through any kind of credible threats that they have. It's great that they made the arrest of the individual because now they're going to interrogate him and get the information they need. I mean, there's a lot of terrorist groups out there, so I don't even want to speculate who might be responsible.

But again, since they made the arrest of the individual, they're going to talk to him and hopefully go through his social media. So all his internet history, all his links and ties and quickly identify if this in fact was a terrorist attack and who is responsible.

SCIUTTO: No question.

Michael Alcazar, thanks so much for joining.

Just recapping what we know. Authorities there in Magdeburg, Germany, outside of Berlin, say some 60 to 80 people have been injured. So far, one confirmed killed. They are describing this as an attack that presumes a deliberate act. And local media are saying the driver of the car involved has been arrested.

We'll continue to follow developments and we will be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: We continue to follow developments in Germany, where a car drove through a Christmas market in Magdeburg, west of Berlin. So far, one person confirmed dead. Police say some 60 to 80 people injured. The driver of the car has been arrested.

Glenn Schoon, a security management consultant and terrorism expert, joins me now.

I don't want to go beyond what we know at this point, Glenn, because police are saying this is an attack, a deliberate act, and they have arrested the driver of the car.

We should note some context here. And that is that Christmas markets in Germany have been attacked before. There was a deadly attack in 2016, and there have been other plots targeting Christmas markets, specifically that have been foiled prior to those plots being carried out.

Based on what you see here, what is your best assessment as to what took place as police continue to investigate?

GLENN SCHOON, SECURITY MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT: It looks like definitely a terrorist attack. When we look at the implications of this, you already mentioned it, 2016 19th of December was the major attack in Berlin, 12 dead, 70 injured.

The second high watermark in Europe for Christmas time attacks on markets was, of course, two years later, 2018, in Strasbourg in France. Three dead and a couple of dozen injured.

What's worrisome here, aside from obviously the direct human tragedy, is the scale of this. So were looking at probably the biggest terrorist incident in Europe since COVID time, just looking at what the Germans are reporting for, casualties right now. Hopefully the number of fatalities wont go up. But the concern certainly is it will this will certainly generate a European wide alert. So it won't be confined to Germany in terms of the major impact.

And of course, Germany is not alone in having warned about concerns for attacks around this time period. The immediate concern is, you know, are there is this part of a larger plot and/or are there simultaneous attacks planned for the next few days?

[15:55:07]

Right after that will come the concern, not just for German, but European authorities, might we have similar attacks in the run up to New Year's? So other than Christmas as a distinct date, we've seen a lot of plotting in recent years in Europe around new years.

SCIUTTO: Yeah.

SCHOON: And Britain, for instance, yesterday, just yesterday, was the latest to issue a warning for people to be on the alert during markets and during the holiday season, and they're going to have a much bigger --

SCIUTTO: Right. And there are limits to the to the security measures one can put in place, given the number of markets like this and other targets. I should note in 2016, there was another attack in Nice, that one involving a truck that drove along the promenade there, killed some 86 people, injured hundreds, and it shows that vehicles can be quite deadly weapons.

Glenn Schoon, security management consultant, terrorism expert, thanks so much.

Recapping the details as we know them. At least one dead, up to 80 injured after a car plowed through a Christmas market in Germany, quite close to Berlin. Based on videos we've seen, it was a high speed impact of that car, with those crowds visiting the market. We're going to continue to follow developments there in Magdeburg, Germany.

Thanks so much for joining me today. I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington.

And "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" picks up our coverage next.