The suspect in the attack on the Christmas market in Magdeburg appeared to be dissatisfied with the treatment of Saudi refugees in Germany, a prosecutor has said.

On Friday evening, a car was driven at speed into visiting crowds in the central German city.

Five people have died so far – including a nine-year-old child and four adults – with at least 200 more injured, according to authorities. Of those injured, 41 are said to be seriously hurt.

The suspect – who was arrested at the scene – was a 50-year-old Saudi citizen who worked as a doctor and arrived in Germany in 2006, premier of Saxony-Anhalt state Reiner Haseloff said.

He has been named as Taleb A in German media.

Police director Tom-Oliver Langhans told a news conference on Saturday the attack had left the city “very alarmed”.

He added that officers arrested the suspect three minutes after the first emergency calls were made from the market.

Prosecutor Horst Walter Nopens said the motive behind the attack appeared to be “dissatisfaction with the treatment of refugees from Saudi Arabia and how they are being treated in Germany”.

German interior minister Nancy Faeser has said the suspect was Islamophobic.

The suspect has described himself as an “ex-Muslim” who sought asylum after receiving death threats for denouncing his faith.

His social media pages, which he posted on in the hours leading up to the attack, promote anti-Islam views – and claim Germany is allowing the “Islamisation of Europe”.

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The suspect, who says he works as a psychiatrist at a government hospital, has appeared in various media reports about his efforts to help other former Muslims flee Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations.

Tamara Zieschang, the state’s interior minister, told reporters the suspect had been practising medicine in Bernburg, around 25 miles south of Magdeburg.

He has a website that he told the BBC in 2019 has helped “hundreds of people” seek asylum overseas.

The homepage reads: “My advice: do not seek asylum in Germany.”

In videos with voiceovers in English, he claims he is being pursued by German police, who “sent someone carrying a knife to steal a USB stick from my mailbox”.

Tweets supporting Elon Musk and Tommy Robinson

Another tweet criticises a commentator for saying X owner Elon Musk and far-right activist Tommy Robinson should be arrested.

He claims they “cited Germany as a shining example of media censorship”, and adds: “My experience in Germany leaves no doubt – they actually censor victims.”

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German terrorist expert Professor Peter Neumann described the suspect’s profile as unusual.

He says he “loves the AfD [Alternative for Germany] and wants to punish Germany for tolerance towards Islamists”, the director of King’s College London’s International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation wrote on X.

Professor Neumann said: “After 25 years in this ‘business’ you think nothing could surprise you anymore… that really wasn’t on my radar.”

The doors of the white van are thrown open. Dozens of armed French police jump on board, their colleagues on the ground form a human chain and get to work.

The van is carrying precious cargo. Water. Small plastic bottles stacked roof high and van deep.

It’s chaotic.

Orders are being shouted in French and Chimaore, the language spoken by Mayotte’s African community.

Security is high. The gendarmes are backed up by armed local police.

Local residents are angry. That anger could easily turn to violence.

It’s why a 10pm curfew remains in place across the island. One resident described the situation as “volcanic”.

Cyclone Chido tore through Mayotte on Sunday, but this is the first water delivery Ouangani has received since Saturday.

Nobody understands why.

‘There’s no word and no one has water’

Arriving at the distribution centre just after the water is loaded on to another van for delivery to nearby villages is Ouangani’s mayor, a young, former English teacher who speaks multiple languages.

He is considered and thoughtful when describing the situation facing his country.

“It’s not sufficient,” he tells me. “There’s no word and no one has water.”

“The authorities weren’t prepared,” he adds. “There’s not only a water problem, it’s food, electricity. Nothing on the island has been done.”

He then delivers a dire warning of “people starving”.

I ask him who he thinks is to blame? He says that everyone is responsible.

“I cannot imagine that with all the means we have with technology, that they couldn’t have seen this coming,” he says.

But this region is not remote. It’s only an hour-long drive south of the capital on one winding road.

That’s why there is so much fury.

The man who challenged French President Emmanuel Macron is from here.

“Where is our water?!’, he demanded of the leader on his visit to the Indian Ocean island.

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This van load of water is supposed to serve between three to five villages in the area.

That’s a population of anywhere between six and 12,000 people. Nobody knows for sure because of the problem with undocumented migrants.

We follow the van to the first drop-off.

The vehicle pulls up and drops off 10 to 20 crates of half-litre plastic bottles. Each crate has 12 small bottles. People have been waiting. They’re mostly women. Each one grabs a pack and disappears.

Within minutes it’s all gone.

Some more people show up seconds later. Their anger at missing out is obvious. “What’s the point?!” a man shouts.

‘It’ll only last about one or two hours’

Fundi has been lucky enough to get some water.

“We only just received aid now, I really don’t think that’s good enough,” she says.

They were just outside when they saw the van arrive with the water. Pure luck.

“Usually communication is good, but I don’t know why they came unannounced like that today,” she says.

But it’s not enough, Fundi explains: “Twelve bottles of water that are only 500ml, for a family? That’s really very little, it’ll only last about one to two hours.”

It’s no wonder, Fundi has a family of seven living under one roof.

The US says it has killed Islamic State (IS) leader Abu Yusif in Syria.

US Central Command Forces (Centcom) said it carried out an airstrike targeting Yusif – who also goes by Mahmud – in the eastern province of Deir ez Zor.

They said the area was previously controlled by the Syrian regime and Russian forces before the recent fall of Bashar al Assad.

Another IS operative was also killed in the strike, according to US officials.

Centcom commander, General Michael Erik Kurilla, said: “As stated before, the United States – working with allies and partners in the region – will not allow ISIS to take advantage of the current situation in Syria and reconstitute.

“IS has the intent to break out of detention the over 8,000 ISIS operatives currently being held in facilities in Syria.

“We will aggressively target these leaders and operatives, including those trying to conduct operations external to Syria.”

IS militants conquered parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014, taking advantage of the latter’s civil war to claim land before self-declaring a caliphate.

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At the height of its power, millions of people lived under the rule of IS, with the militants enforcing an extremist interpretation of Islamic law and carrying out mass killings of minority groups.

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However, they were pushed back by a coalition of forces and had lost control of all of their Middle East territory by 2019.

They have continued insurgency efforts in parts of Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, while their affiliates still have a presence in parts of Africa.