A woman who was with her boyfriend at the Magdeburg Christmas market told local media that she was holding him in her arms when the car used in the attack sped towards them.
“He was hit and pulled away from my side. It was terrible,” said 32-year-old Nadine to Bild newspaper.
German media footage showed a black car plowing into a crowd at high speed, then continuing for hundreds of meters.
Nadine’s boyfriend reportedly suffered injuries to his head and leg.
Lars Frohmüller, a reporter for public broadcaster MDR, shared with the BBC his account after arriving at the scene shortly following the attack.
“Everywhere were ambulances, there were police, there were a lot of fire workers.
“This was a real chaotic situation. We saw blood on the floor, we saw people sitting beside each other and having golden and silver foils around them. And we saw many doctors trying to keep people warm and help them with their injuries.
“It’s a big shock. It’s a big shock for every people here in Magdeburg and for every person in Saxony-Anhalt.”
Two people – a toddler and an adult – have been confirmed dead in the attack, with 68 others injured, 15 of them seriously.
Local officials reported that bystanders provided critical first aid to the injured before emergency services arrived.
Video footage captures the moment the suspect was arrested, with officers pointing guns at him and shouting for him to stay still as he lay on the ground. Other officers then approached, only to be told to hold back.
The suspect, a Saudi national who arrived in Germany in 2006 and worked as a doctor, has been arrested.
The motive remains unclear, and the man has no known ties to Islamist extremism.
This is not the first attack on a Christmas market in Germany. In 2016, an Islamist extremist drove a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people.
Just last month, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser called for “greater vigilance” at the country’s popular Christmas markets.
However, Faeser stated there were no “concrete” threats and highlighted stricter weapons laws in public spaces, which were introduced after the Solingen knife attack that killed three people.
In that attack, a 26-year-old Syrian man was arrested, with prosecutors accusing him of being a member of the Islamic State.
The Solingen tragedy, which occurred in August, intensified the ongoing debate in Germany over asylum and migration.