On a visit on Saturday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, ministers and regional political leaders were heckled by members of the public, some seemingly outraged by what was criticised as a lapse in security.

The alleged perpetrator of the deadly car-ramming attack on a Christmas market last week in Germany had been contacted by police just weeks before the incident, authorities said on Monday, as the number of people injured climbed to 235.

Police are treating a car-ramming at a Christmas market in Germany that killed at least five people as an attack

Police in Magdeburg, the central city where the attack took place on Friday evening, said that the victims were four women ranging in age from 45 to 75, as well as a 9-year-old boy they had spoken

German police had been repeatedly warned that a Saudi doctor who is suspected of ploughing a car into crowds at a Magdeburg Christmas market posed a terror threat.

The Saxony-Anhalt premier tells reporters that he cannot rule out more deaths due to the number of seriously injured.

When a Saudi Arabian national was accused of ramming a car into a German Christmas market, members of the frequently anti-Muslim European far right said it proved their point.