A car plowed into a crowd at a Christmas market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg, killing two people, including a child, and injuring dozens, officials said.

A total of 68 people were injured, 15 of them seriously, authorities said in a statement.

Saxony-Anhalt Governor Rainer Haseloff told reporters at the scene that the arrested suspect is a 50-year-old Saudi citizen who arrived in Germany in 2006 and worked as a doctor.

He said preliminary investigations suggested the alleged attack was the work of a “lone wolf” and he could not rule out the possibility of further deaths given the number of injuries.

The suspected attacker’s motives are unclear and there are no known links to Islamic extremism.

Video from the scene showed a number of emergency services vehicles arriving as people lay on the ground.

Unconfirmed video on social media purportedly showed a car plowing into crowds at the market.

A spokesman for the city of Magdeburg said all hospitals in the region were preparing for a “mass casualty event,” Reuters reported.

City officials said about 100 firefighters and 50 rescue workers were at the scene.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said reports from Magdeburg “make us fear the worst”.

He added: “My heart goes out to the victims and their loved ones. We stand with them and all residents of Magdeburg. I am grateful to all the emergency services provided during these difficult times.”

Haseloff said Scholz will visit the city on Saturday.

At around 19:20 local time (18:20 GMT), the Christmas market organizers announced that the Christmas market had been closed in response to a request for “understanding”.

Soon after, they called on the public to avoid the market. “Please let emergency services do their job and leave the market in an orderly manner,” they wrote on social media.

In an interview with German newspaper Bild, Nadine described how she and her boyfriend Marco were at a Christmas market when a car sped towards them.

“He was hit and pulled away from me,” the 32-year-old told the newspaper. “It’s terrible.”

Meanwhile, Lars Frohmüller, a journalist for German public broadcaster MDR, told BBC Radio 4’s World Tonight he saw “blood on the floor” and “a lot of doctors trying to treat people Keep them warm and help treat their wounds.”

The incident occurred while the Magdeburg football team was playing against Fortuna Dusseldorf.

After the game, the team players stood in a row in front of the fans. The club said in a statement that it “sympathizes with those affected by the horrific events and the Magdeburg Christmas Market”.

Meanwhile, a minute’s silence was observed after Bayern Munich’s match against RB Leipzig.

Friday’s incident was not the first time people at Christmas markets in Germany have been attacked.

In 2016, Anis Amri, a Tunisian man with ties to the so-called Islamic State (IS) group, failed to gain asylum in Germany. Driving a truck into a crowd gathered at the Berlin Church Marketresulting in 12 deaths and 49 injuries.

Two years later, a gunman opened fire at a Christmas market in the eastern French city of Strasbourg, killing five people and wounding 11 others. Two days later, the gunman was shot dead by police.

French President Macron said that after the Magdeburg incident, France “shares the pain of the German people and expresses its full solidarity.”