Mourners are laying flowers near the scene of the deadly Christmas market attack as investigators puzzle over the motive of the suspect.

Magdeburg's Christmas market is a sad sight. This should have been the busiest weekend of the season, but the whole area has been cordoned off and all the stands are shut. Police are the only people walking around the boarded-up mulled wine and gingerbread stalls.

A car ploughed into a crowd of shoppers at a busy German Christmas market on Friday evening, killing two people and injuring up to 80 in a suspected deliberate attack. An extensive police operation is underway following the attack at the market in the German city of Magdeburg that happened at around 7 p.m. local time.