Officials say five people have been killed, including a 9-year-old, after a Saudi doctor drove into a Christmas market teeming with holiday shoppers in the German city of Magdeburg on Friday.

The latest deadly assault on a beloved German tradition illustrates the challenge of holiday safety. For years, Germany has been strengthening security measures around Christmas markets in reaction to an attack in 2016 in which a man killed 12 people by driving a truck into a market in central Berlin.

The number of people injured in the attack on a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg two weeks ago has risen to 299 from the previously reported 235, the state Interior Ministry said on Friday.

A suspected attacker drove a car into a Christmas market in Germany on Friday evening, killing at least two people, the Deutsche Presse-Agentur news agency reported.

Migration was already set to dominate Germany’s election campaign, which starts in earnest in the New Year. But Friday night’s attack will supercharge the issue.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and other politicians will Saturday visit the scene of a bloody car-ramming that targeted visitors to a Christmas fair in an old market city.

MAGDEBURG, Germany, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Authorities investigated a Saudi doctor with a history of anti-Islam rhetoric as the suspected driver in a car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg that killed five people and injured scores.

At least five people were killed and 200 injured after a man drove a car into a bustling outdoor Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, on Friday night.