Urgent search for suspect after deadly car ramming near Berlin Pride
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Emergency responders helping people in Berlin after a car hit a crowd on July 25.
PHOTO: REUTERS
- A suspect linked to Islamist circles was identified but not arrested after a vehicle rammed into a crowd at Berlin’s Gay Pride, killing one and injuring 16.
- The attack forced organisers to cut short the event, prompting a city-wide manhunt and heightened security measures.
- German leaders condemned the attack, vowing punishment as it follows a series of deadly vehicle and knife attacks in recent years.
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BERLIN – German police on July 26 were hunting for the prime suspect in a car-ramming attack near the Berlin Pride grounds, which left one woman dead and 16 others injured.
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 ISIS militant group with a criminal conviction.
The incident shattered what had been a day of celebration for hundreds of thousands attending Christopher Street Day (CSD), one of Europe’s largest pride events.
How the attack unfolded
Shortly before 10pm on July 25 (4am on July 26, Singapore time), 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 added that several people also suffered stab wounds.
Emergency services said one woman was killed and 16 others were hurt, including three with life-threatening injuries.
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 the morning of July 26 still at the scene, heavily damaged by the impact with the tree.
Lines of police officers were combing the ground near the car searching for clues and taking samples from the ground.
Shortly after the attack, the festivities were cut short, with revellers requested to leave the area.
Islamist-linked suspect
Police say that the prime suspect 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 that he was an ISIS supporter.
He was convicted in Germany of “preparing a serious act of subversive violence”, they said.
In 2025, he travelled to the Middle East in a failed attempt to join ISIS.
Police described him as thin, around 1.9m tall, with black hair and dressed in a black hoodie and white trousers.
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.
‘Won’t beat us down’
German politicians were swift to react to the attack, with Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner condemning a “brutal attack” on “a gathering for a tolerant and peaceful Berlin”.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in the early hours of July 26 that he and Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt were being informed of the investigation and vowed to bring those responsible for the “horrific act” to justice.
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.
Members of Berlin’s queer community said on social media that a vigil would be organised at 2pm local time on July 26 in front of the Brandenburg Gate for people to grieve the victims of the attack.
Armin Duenhoelter, who works as a drag artiste, was backstage at the main stage when the celebrations were cut short.
The 49-year-old, who is from Wolfsburg, told AFP on the morning of July 26 he was still “shocked” by the attack 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 for the CSD in 2027 “even though in the back of your mind or in your gut, you might feel uneasy”.
“But we won’t let it beat us down”.
Spate of attacks
The attack revived memories of a string of similar incidents which shook Germany in recent years and inflamed debate on immigration, with several of the perpetrators being from outside the country.
Martin Hess, a lawmaker from the far-right Alternative for Germany, said in a statement that the attack was the result of “a complete failure of the government’s security policies”.
“Islamism is the greatest security threat for our country,” he said.
People attending the annual pride parade earlier in the day on July 25, near Germany’s Brandenburg Gate.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The deadliest attack in recent years was a truck rampage at a Berlin Christmas market in December 2016 by a Tunisian man that killed 13 people.
The run-up to the 2025 General Election saw a spate of attacks in public places, including by those with Islamist motives.
However, the worst incident in that period involved Saudi psychiatrist and anti-Islam activist Taleb Jawad al-Abdulmohsen, who killed six people and wounded more than 300 in a car-ramming at a busy Christmas market in the eastern city of Magdeburg in 2024. AFP
