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

Thousands of people in Magdeburg formed a human chain on Monday to remember the victims of the attack on a Christmas market in the central German city, as the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) held a rival rally.

Far-right co-chair Alice Weidel says attack was ‘an act of an Islamist full of hatred ... for us Germans, for us Christians’