Berlin Pride Attack Kills One as Police Hunt Suspect
BERLIN-German police on Sunday intensified their search for a 21-year-old suspect believed to have links to Islamist circles after a van drove into a crowd near Berlin’s Christopher Street Day Pride celebrations, killing one person and injuring 16 others. Authorities said the suspect, identified as Abdul B., had not been arrested and warned that he could be armed and dangerous.
Police and prosecutors appealed to the public for information that could help locate the suspect, while investigators continued examining the circumstances surrounding the attack. Officials stressed that they had not yet established a motive or the suspect’s precise role in the incident.
“The suspect is known to police. He is known to us as a member of Islamic circles here in Berlin, and our search for this person is proceeding at full speed,” police spokesman Florian Nath said. He added that investigators still had no confirmed information regarding the suspect’s motives or the sequence of events leading to the attack.
According to police, a white van drove into pedestrians in Berlin’s Tiergarten park at around 10 p.m. local time before crashing into a tree. The park is located near the route of the city’s annual Pride parade, where hundreds of thousands of people had gathered earlier in the day for Christopher Street Day celebrations.
Emergency responders, firefighters and a large police contingent rushed to the scene after the crash. Police had initially warned that some victims had sustained life-threatening injuries and urged people to leave the area immediately to allow rescue operations to proceed.
Investigators were also examining witness accounts suggesting that some victims may have suffered stab wounds in addition to injuries caused by the vehicle. Police said it was too early to determine whether those reports were accurate or connected to the incident.
More than 2,200 police officers had been deployed across Berlin on Saturday to secure the Pride parade and associated LGBTQ+ events. Officers spent the night interviewing witnesses and collecting evidence from the scene as forensic teams continued their investigation.
Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner condemned the attack, describing it as an assault on the city’s values following what had been a peaceful celebration. He said he had full confidence that police and security agencies would continue working around the clock to establish the facts and identify those responsible.
Authorities also appealed for witnesses to provide photographs or video recordings taken near the scene and activated a crisis hotline to assist people searching for missing relatives or friends.
The incident prompted organisers to cancel the remainder of the Christopher Street Day festivities. A concert near the Brandenburg Gate was interrupted shortly after 10:15 p.m., and attendees were instructed to leave the area and avoid travelling through Tiergarten park.
Earlier in the day, participants had marched peacefully through central Berlin, accompanied by music, floats and demonstrations calling for equality and protection of LGBTQ+ rights. Christopher Street Day, first held in West Berlin in 1979, commemorates the 1969 Stonewall uprising in New York and has grown into one of Europe’s largest Pride events.
Witness Julian Miethig, who had attended celebrations before the incident, said he learned of the attack while heading to an after-party and later saw numerous emergency vehicles near the park. He described the incident as a devastating moment for Berlin’s LGBTQ+ community.
The attack comes amid a series of vehicle-ramming incidents in Germany in recent years. Authorities have previously investigated similar attacks in Leipzig, Mannheim, Munich and Magdeburg, although officials have not indicated whether the Berlin case is linked to any previous incidents.
Police said the investigation remained active as officers continued searching for the suspect and gathering evidence from the scene.
