This is the touching moment FC Magdeburg players remained silent and stood in solidarity with fans despite a huge victory over their opponents as news broke of a horrific Christmas market attack that killed at least one person and left dozens injured It leaked into the stadium.
FC Magdeburg claimed a 5-2 victory against Fortuna Düsseldorf on Friday night, but there was no applause or celebration, just silence, when the final whistle blew.
Screens inside the Merkur Spiel-Arena in Düsseldorf, which seats 54,000 fans, showed a message conveying the news that a car had hit a group of people at a Christmas market in the eastern city of Magdeburg. Germany, on Friday night, leaving at least one person dead and almost 70 people injured. Fifteen are believed to have serious injuries.
The driver of the car, apparently a dark BMW, was arrested after the accident at 7:04 p.m. today, according to unnamed government officials in the state of Saxony-Anhalt who spoke to the dpa news agency.
Ten minutes before the end of the match, the Düsseldorf stadium screens read: ‘A car ran over a group of people at the Magdeburg Christmas market. That’s why the stands stopped supporting the game,” Bild reports.
At the end of the game, the players went directly to their locker rooms and did not speak to the media.
Fortuna striker André Hoffmann later said: “I received some information during the second half. It is clear that football immediately takes a backseat. There are more important things. I would like to express our deepest condolences on behalf of everyone.” .
Schalke player Ron Schallenberg added that he was thinking about Magdeburg and said: “Football is taking a backseat now.”
This is the touching moment FC Magdeburg players stood silently and stood in solidarity with fans despite a huge victory as news of a horrific attack on the Christmas market filtered into the stadium.

The players were stunned by the news that at least one person was killed and dozens injured after a car plowed into a crowd at the Christmas market in their hometown of Magdeburg.

The driver of the car, supposedly a dark BMW, was arrested after the accident that took place today at 7:04 p.m.
According to the emergency services, which have set up tents to immediately treat the victims, several people were “seriously” injured.
Video footage too graphic to share appears to show the dark car plowing into the dense crowd, leaving dozens of people lying on the ground.
Within seconds, countless revelers can be seen fleeing for their lives following the accident.
Separate images showed children crying loudly as several small crowds of people formed around those injured in the crash, in apparent attempts to help them.
One man who spoke to the German newspaper Mitteldeutsche Zeitung said the Christmas market had turned into “war-like conditions”, while another witness told the newspaper there were countless families in the “fairy tale zone” of the market when the car crashed into the crowd. .
Local police said in X that “extensive police operations are currently underway” and added that more reports would be submitted shortly.
The Magdeburg Christmas market is located in the Old Market Hall, right next to the Magdeburg Town Hall, near the Elbe River, and was closed by the organizers following the incident.
Organizers also asked people to leave the city center. Neighboring cities, including Halle, about 80 kilometers from Magdeburg, are preparing their hospitals to treat the victims.

Ten minutes before the end of the match, the Düsseldorf stadium screens read: ‘A car ran over a group of people at the Magdeburg Christmas market. Therefore, the stands have stopped supporting the game.’

At the end of the game, the players looked distraught before heading directly to their locker rooms without speaking to the media.

At least one person died in the accident

A car plowed into a group of people at a Christmas market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg on Friday, leaving between 60 and 80 people injured.

Magdeburg, west of Berlin, is the capital of the state of Saxony-Anhalt and has about 240,000 inhabitants.
The horror accident comes less than a month after Germany’s Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said that while there were no concrete signs of a danger to Christmas markets this year, it was prudent to be alert.