Berlin grieves deadly pride ramming as police search for Islamist attacker
France 24 · LC · trust 61/100
Germans on Sunday mourned a deadly attack near Berlin Pride, which Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said was likely an Islamist terror attack. Police are still hunting for the prime suspect in the car-ramming, which left one woman dead and 29 others injured.
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"Everything we see here indicates that this was an Islamist terror attack," Alexander Dobrindt told reporters at the scene, adding that the number of injured had gone up to 29. One woman was killed in the attack.
German police on Sunday were still hunting for the prime suspect.
Read more Van rams into Berlin Pride crowd, killing one and injuring 16
Police said there were indications that the suspect acted out of an Islamist ideology, with German media reporting he was a supporter of the so-called Islamic State (IS) group with a criminal conviction.
The incident late Saturday shattered what had been a day of celebration for hundreds of thousands attending Christopher Street Day (CSD), one of Europe 's largest Pride events.
Shortly before 10:00pm (20:00 GMT) on Saturday, a white vehicle ran into people on the southern edge of central Berlin's Tiergarten park before crashing into a tree.
Police say that "one or more" people then left the vehicle and fled the scene.
They say several people also suffered stab wounds.
Emergency services said one woman was killed and 16 others were injured.
None of those injured were at risk of succumbing to their injuries, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Sunday.
"My thoughts are with the woman who died and her family as well as those injured in Berlin's hospitals, from whom we thankfully hear that no one is at risk of death any more," Merz said while addressing a memorial service for the victims at Berlin's Marienkirche church.
Emergency responders work on the site of the Berlin Pride attack on Saturday night. © Christian Mang, Reuters The attack took place several hundred metres away from the end of the CSD parade route and the event's main stage at Berlin's iconic Brandenburg Gate.
The vehicle used in the attack, a Citroen minivan with a Berlin number plate, could be seen on Sunday morning still at the scene, heavily damaged by the impact with the tree.
Lines of police officers were combing the ground near the car in the search for clues and taking samples of material from the ground.
Shortly after the attack, the festivities were cut short, with revellers requested to leave the area.
Police say that the prime suspect in the case is 21-year-old Abdul B. and put out an appeal for information on his whereabouts as well as his photo.
German newspapers Bild and Spiegel reported Abdul B. was an IS group supporter.
He was convicted in Germany of "preparing a serious act of subversive violence", they said. Last year, he travelled to the Middle East in a failed attempt to join the IS group.
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A police spokesman earlier told reporters that Abdul B. was believed to have links to "Islamist circles".
Police say that other suspects could be involved in the attack and that they would carry out searches at train stations in Berlin as part of the investigation.
German politicians were swift to react to the attack, with Berlin's Mayor Kai Wegner condemning a "brutal attack" on "a gathering for a tolerant and peaceful Berlin".
Before attending a memorial service for the victims in central Berlin's Marienkirche, Merz appealed to those targeted by the attack to "not let yourselves be intimidated".
"These people have only one aim – to divide our society," he said.
President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he was "shaken and outraged" by the attack, while the speaker of parliament Julia Kloeckner ordered the flag at the German Bundestag to be lowered to half mast.
There were also expressions of solidarity from abroad, with European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen expressing "her deepest sympathies" to the victims of the attack.
The governments of the Netherlands , France , Italy , Sweden and the UK also expressed their shock and condemnation.
Thousands of people gathered for a community vigil at 2pm in Berlin's Pariser Platz, the square surrounding the Brandenburg Gate, just a few hundred metres from where the attack took place.
The event hit maximum capacity about 30 minutes after beginning, despite on and off rain, with police limiting attendance due to security precautions, according to organisers.
Attendees held a moment of silence for the victims and waved pride flags, with one holding an oversized sign reading "From grief, to anger to resistance!"
People hug each other as they gather at Brandenburg Gate, after a deadly incident in which a vehicle crashed into a crowd near Berlin's annual Christopher Street Day Pride parade on July 25, 2026. © Maryam Majd, Reuters Alfonso Pantisano, the Berlin state government's LGBTQ affairs commissioner, said he was at Brandenburg Gate when everything changed in a matter of moments.
"To you, my dear community: I know that many of you are afraid right now. I won't sugarcoat it – I am, too. But you are not alone in this fear, in your grief, and in your anger," Pantisano wrote on Instagram.
Armin Duenhoelter, 49, from Wolfsburg, who works as a drag artist, was backstage at the main stage when the celebrations were cut short.
He told AFP on Sunday morning he was still "shocked" by Saturday's events even though "the events in recent years did make us think that one of our events could eventually become a target".
He vowed to be back…
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