Magdeburg Christmas market reopens a year after deadly car-ramming attack

The Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg was opened on Thursday, nearly a year after it was the scene of a car-ramming attack that killed six people.

More than 140 merchants opened their stalls, selling candles, wool hats, candied almonds, mulled wine and other Christmas treats, German news agency dpa reported. The market also has a Ferris wheel and an ice rink.

"Expectations are hopeful, naturally with the utmost respect for what happened last year, and we simply hope that people will rediscover their Christmas market," Paul-Gerhard Stieger, the managing director of the Magdeburg Christmas Market GmbH, told RTL Television.

Following discussions about the sufficiency of the market's security earlier this month and a preliminary refusal by state officials to grant approval for the opening, the city and organisers made further improvements to boost safety measures.

After last year's attack, which investigators have said was carried out with a rented BMW X3 that reached speeds of up to 48 kph during the rampage, there had been criticism that the security precautions were inadequate.

At least €250,000 was invested in new security systems, including concrete blocks that are supposed to keep cars from entering the market, dpa reported.

Five women and a boy died and many others were injured in the 20 December attack last year that lasted just over a minute.

Earlier this month, the suspect went on trial on murder charges.

Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, a 51-year-old Saudi doctor, has been charged with six counts of murder and 338 of attempted murder in the trial at the Magdeburg state court, for which sessions have been scheduled until March.

He faces life imprisonment if convicted.

Christmas markets are a huge part of German culture as an annual holiday tradition cherished since the Middle Ages and successfully exported to much of the rest of the world.