Christmas market in Germany opens after last year's deadly attack in the city of Magdeburg

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BERLIN (AP) — The Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg opened Thursday, nearly a year after it was the scene of a horrific car-ramming attack that left six people dead.

Five women and a boy died, and many more people were injured in the Dec. 20 attack that lasted just over a minute.

On Thursday morning, more than 140 merchants opened their stalls, selling candles, wool hats, candied almonds, mulled wine and other Christmas treats, German news agency dpa reported. A Ferris wheel and an ice rink promised joy and activity for children and grown-ups alike.

“Expectations are hopeful, naturally with the utmost respect for what happened last year, and we simply hope that people will rediscover their Christmas market," Paul-Gerhard Stieger, the managing director of the Magdeburg Christmas Market GmbH, told RTL Television.

Earlier this month, the suspect in the attack went on trial on murder charges. Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, a 51-year-old Saudi doctor, has been charged with six counts of murder and 338 of attempted murder in the trial at the Magdeburg state court, for which sessions have been scheduled until March. He faces life imprisonment if convicted.

Following discussions about the sufficiency of the market's security earlier this month and a preliminary refusal by state officials to grant approval for the opening, the city and organizers made further improvements to boost safety measures.

The city and the organizers of the market invested at least 250,000 euros (around $290,000) in new security systems, including concrete blocks that are supposed to keep cars from entering the market, dpa reported.

After last year's attack, which investigators have said was carried out with a rented BMW X3 that reached speeds of up to 48 kph (30 mph) during the rampage, there had been criticism that the security precautions were inadequate.

Christmas markets are a huge part of German culture as an annual holiday tradition cherished since the Middle Ages and successfully exported to much of the Western world.