Officials say five people have been killed, including a 9-year-old, after a Saudi doctor drove into a Christmas market teeming with holiday shoppers in the German city of Magdeburg on Friday.

The suspect in the car-ramming incident at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg had appeared in seven investigative proceedings in the two years prior to the attack, Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper reported on Saturday.

More than 200 people were injured, many seriously, when a Saudi doctor intentionally drove a black BMW into a busy Magdeburg, Germany, Christmas market Friday evening.

Migration was already set to dominate Germany’s election campaign, which starts in earnest in the New Year. But Friday night’s attack will supercharge the issue.

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said on Wednesday that he welcomed equal, dignified, healthy and orderly exchanges with China, but wondered whether there was goodwill from Beijing given what he said was their blocking of simple things like tourism.

German prosecutors are commissioning a detailed mental evaluation of the suspected attacker behind a vehicle rampage through the crowded Magdeburg Christmas market that left five dead and more than 230 injured.