The hit-and-run accident that took place in the German city of Magdeburg is the latest episode in a series of incidents in which cars and various vehicles turned into a deadly weapon used to run over civilians and innocents, becoming a recurring scene in many countries of the world over the past ten years and even before.
The American Associated Press monitored the most prominent incidents Run over Which occurred during the past years, and she said that their motives were different, as some were inspired by terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda and ISIS, which encouraged followers to carry out attacks at a low cost and with simple technology using cars and trucks. While there were other incidents linked to mental health, far-right extremism or xenophobia.
The most prominent of these incidents were as follows:
1-
At least 5 people were killed and more than 200 injured in Magdeburg, Germany, in a car-ramming accident at a Christmas market on January 20, 2024. The attack was carried out by a doctor of Saudi origin who expressed anti-Islamic views and support for the far right.
2- 35 people were killed in one of the bloodiest mass killings in China on November 11, 2024, when a 62-year-old driver ran over people exercising in southern China. Authorities said the perpetrator was angry about his divorce.
3- Four people from a Muslim family were killed in the city of London, in the Canadian province of Ontario, when an attacker ran over them with a truck while they were walking, in what the Canadian Prime Minister described as a terrorist attack motivated by hatred. The attacker was sentenced to life imprisonment.
4At least 10 people were killed and 16 injured in the Canadian city of Toronto in April 2018 when a young soldier ran over a group of pedestrians, most of whom were female. He later told police that he belonged to an online group for the community of sexually frustrated men.
5- 14 people were killed and others were injured in the Spanish city of Barcelona in August 2017 when a van ran over people in a crowded area of the city. ISIS claimed responsibility.
6- A right-wing extremist ran over a crowd of protesters against the “Unite the Right” march in the city of Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017, killing a woman and wounding dozens of others, before he was killed by the police.
7- Briton Khaled Masoud killed four people and stabbed a police officer in an attack that occurred on Westminster Bridge in London in March 2017.
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Six people were killed and 30 others were injured in Melbourne, Australia, on January 20, 2017, when a car rammed into crowds of people at lunchtime in a pedestrian area in the second largest city in Australia. The perpetrator, James Gargasoulas, was found to be in a drug-induced psychosis.
9- On December 19, 2016, Anis Amri, a rejected Tunisian asylum seeker, drove into a Christmas market in the German capital with a stolen truck, killing 13 people and wounding dozens. The attacker was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.
10- Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel used a rented truck more than a mile along a crowded coastal promenade in the French Riviera resort on Bastille Day weekend, in a ramming operation that killed 86 people in the bloodiest attack of its kind.