Small update regarding the safety measures in the city of Magdeburg
Translated:
After the attack at the Magdeburg Christmas market, there is criticism against the safety concept of the hosts. Christian Schneider, expert for vehicle entry protection, said MDR SAXONY-ANHALT on Sunday, actually all possible routes of attack should have been secured in a way that an entry should have been impossible.
It is possible to construct entryways such that nobody can pass without vehicle authorization. Like at an underground parking garage, you open a gate, then authorized traffic goes through, and then you close the gate again. The statement that, with vehicle entry protection, emergency services can't go past, is wrong. As positive examples, Schneider mentioned the Christmas markets in Mainz and at the Berlin Breitscheidplatz. There, the entryways are secured.
As the Bild magazine reported on Saturday, the safety concept in Magdeburg intended that a police vehicle should have blocked the police at Breiter Weg [if you recall the sketch, Breiter Weg is the road on the left hand side of the picture, the one with the tram lines going up]. This, however, was not the case.