A car plowed into a crowd of shoppers at a busy German Christmas market on Friday evening, killing two people and injuring at least 68 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.

A young child is among the dead, Saxony-Anhalt state governor Reiner Haseloff confirmed.

The suspect is believed to be a 50-year-old doctor from Saudi Arabia who has been in the country since 2006, Saxony-Anhalt interior minister Tamara Zieschang told reporters. The suspect is in police custody.

"This is a terrible event, particularly now in the days before Christmas," Haseloff said.

Chancellor OIaf Scholz posted on X: "My thoughts are with the victims and their relatives. We stand beside them and beside the people of Magdeburg."

At least two people were killed in the shocking incident, officials confirmed.

One of those killed was a young child.

At least 68 people are believed to have been injured so far and 15 of those were hurt very seriously, according to government officials and the city government's website.

It said 37 people had injuries of medium severity and 16 were lightly injured.

Haseloff could not rule out further deaths due to the number of people severely injured.

"Every human life that has fallen victim to this attack is a terrible tragedy and one human life too many," Haseloff said.

Magdeburg's University Hospital said it was treating 10 to 20 patients but was preparing for more, dpa reported.

Bild reports that the injured are still being treated amongst the debris of the stalls.

The suspect, who has not yet been named, is a 50-year-old doctor from Saudi Arabia who first came to Germany in 2006, State governor Haseloff told reporters.

"As things stand, he is a lone perpetrator, so that as far as we know there is no further danger to the city," Haseloff, said at a news conference.

The suspect has been arrested and is in police custody.

German public broadcaster MDR reports that police suspect there could be explosives in the suspect's car, which is still at the scene.

The area has been blocked off.

The Christmas market is in the city of Magdeburg, which is west of Berlin. It is the state capital of Saxony-Anhalt and has a population of 240,000.

The large market was bustling on the last Friday before Christmas and was packed with shoppers.

It was evacuated immediately after the attack and organisers have urged the public to stay away from the area.

Footage from the scene of a cordoned-off part of the market showed debris from festive stalls on the ground.

Just yesterday, a service marking the eighth anniversary of an attack on a Christmas market in Berlin took place. In 2016, an attack carried out by Anis Amri killed 13 people and injured dozens more when he drove into a crowd.

A witness told German newspaperMitteldeutsche Zeitung that she and her children jumped out of the path of the careering vehicle as it drove into the crowd.

The anonymous witness described the area as a "fairytale" before the attack.

A man who runs a burger stand told the newspaper that the driver sped past his stall and described the aftermath as "war-like."