Hello, I'm Fraser Myers. I'm delighted to be joined by Spike's Germany correspondent Sabina Beplishbile.

Hello.

And Spike columnist Rakeev Esan.

Hello.

And we're here to discuss the appalling, breaking news, developing story from Magdeburg in Germany.

Tragically, at least five people have been killed at a Christmas

market, four women and a nine-year-old boy, 200 people injured in a suspected terror attack.

Sabina, would you like to just give a sense of what the reaction is on the ground in Germany?

What is the mood like over there?

Well, I think, I mean, people are absolutely shocked. People were getting ready for Christmas.

Christmas markets, of course, are the German institution per se, giving people a feel for the, you know, nice time to come.

And then something like this happened. It's reminiscent of another

attack which took place in 2016, eight years ago in Berlin. Actually, a Christmas market I visited

quite often with my kids, where 13 people were killed, an Islamist terrorist drove into the crowd.

And something like this happening again is really shocking.

It's also the hopefully end point of a year of several terrorist attacks which we've had.

And people are kind of despairing, saying, well, we remember a time when we used to be able to go to festivals,

Christmas markets without even having to worry. And, you know, why is it that this time

seems to be over? What's going to happen next? So, yeah, the mood is very, very gloomy. It's,

yeah, it's a terrible tragedy.

And what do you think will be the political consequences of this, Sabina?

I mean, we've got snap elections coming up in February.

...