BERLIN (AP) — Traditional Christmas markets were opening across Germany on Monday, drawing revelers to their wooden stands with mulled wine, grilled sausages, potato pancakes or caramelized apples.
In Berlin, the famous market at the city’s Gedächtniskirche church opened with service open to the public on Monday morning. Other openings included the Christmas markets at the Rotes Rathaus city hall, Gendarmenmarkt and Charlottenburg Palace.
Christmas markets are an annual tradition that Germans have cherished since the Middle Ages — and successfully exported to much of the Western world. Vendors sell not only snacks and drinks but also handmade candles, wool hats, gloves and shiny Christmas stars in all colors and shapes. Children enjoy rides on chain carousels, Ferris wheels and skating on ice rinks.
Security is an issue at all markets across the country.
In the western city of Cologne, the Christmas market in front of the city’s famous double-domed cathedral was packed with big crowds on Saturday.
“We sense a very good atmosphere here, so we feel that in these difficult times we are currently experiencing, we can give visitors a little moment of respite here,” said Birgit Grothues, the spokeswoman for the market. “We see many smiling faces under our illuminated tent.”
Nonetheless, she said that after last year’s attack in Magdeburg, the city created a special security plan for its markets in close cooperation with police. It includes an additional anti-terrorism barrier and private security, she said.
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Associated Press writer Daniel Niemann in Cologne, Germany, contributed to this report.
MANCHESTER, England — An assailant drove a car into people outside a synagogue Thursday in northern England and then began stabbing them, killing two and seriously hurting at least three in what police called a terrorist attack on the holiest day of the Jewish year.
Officers shot and killed the suspect at the synagogue in Manchester, police said, though authorities took some time to confirm he was dead because he was wearing a vest that made it appear as if he had explosives. Police later said he did not have a bomb.
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By BRIAN MELLEY, PAN PYLAS and IAN HODGSON – Associated Press