Germany hunts Islamist suspect after deadly Berlin Pride ramming attack
BERLIN — German authorities launched a nationwide manhunt on Sunday for a suspected Islamist extremist accused of driving a minivan into pedestrians near Berlin’s annual Pride celebrations, killing one person and injuring 29 others.
Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said the available evidence indicated that Saturday night’s violence was an Islamist terrorist attack. Police warned that the 21-year-old suspect remained at large and could be armed and dangerous.
The attack happened at approximately 10 p.m. on July 25 in Berlin’s central Tiergarten park, close to the Brandenburg Gate and the route of Christopher Street Day, one of Europe’s largest LGBTQ+ Pride events.
According to investigators, the white minivan mounted a pavement and struck pedestrians before crashing into a tree. Authorities said the attacker then allegedly used a bladed weapon, believed to have been a machete, to injure additional victims before fleeing.
Emergency services said three of the injured were initially in life-threatening condition.
Suspect known to German security services
Berlin police identified the wanted man under German privacy rules as Abdul B., a 21-year-old German citizen of Lebanese background.
Police described him as approximately 1.90 metres, or 6 feet 2 inches, tall, with a slim build and black hair. He was reportedly last seen wearing a black hooded top and white trousers.
Authorities released his photograph and urged the public not to approach him. Anyone who sees the suspect has been advised to contact police immediately.
Officials said the man had previously attracted the attention of law enforcement because of repeated criminal offences, radicalisation and connections to Berlin’s Islamist scene. Security sources said he had been released from juvenile detention only two months before the attack and had been classified as potentially dangerous.
Investigators were also examining whether he acted alone. Police said more than one individual may have exited the vehicle following the crash.
Pride celebrations brought to an abrupt end
Hundreds of thousands of people had gathered across Berlin for Christopher Street Day before the violence brought the celebrations to a sudden halt.
Police cancelled the remaining Pride programme and stopped a concert near the Brandenburg Gate. People in the area were ordered to leave and avoid travelling through Tiergarten while emergency crews treated casualties and officers searched for those responsible.
More than 2,200 police officers had reportedly been deployed across Berlin to secure the parade and associated LGBTQ+ events.
Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner described the incident as an assault on Germany’s liberal democracy, openness and freedom. He said the attack had followed an otherwise peaceful and vibrant Pride parade.
The Pride event, known in Germany as Christopher Street Day, began in West Berlin in 1979 and has developed into one of the country’s largest annual political and cultural demonstrations. It commemorates the 1969 Stonewall uprising in New York and campaigns for equality and protection from discrimination.
Germany confronts another vehicle attack
The assault has renewed concern about the use of vehicles as weapons in crowded public spaces.
Berlin was the site of one of Germany’s deadliest modern terrorist attacks in December 2016, when Islamist extremist Anis Amri drove a hijacked truck into a Christmas market. Eleven people at the market were killed, along with the truck’s driver, and dozens more were injured.
Germany has experienced several other deadly vehicle-ramming incidents in recent years, although the motives have varied and some perpetrators were believed to have serious psychological problems rather than extremist connections.
Saturday’s attack is particularly sensitive because authorities believe the suspect was already known to police and domestic intelligence.
That history is expected to intensify questions over whether existing monitoring, detention and threat-assessment systems were sufficient to prevent the attack.
The investigation remains active, and authorities have asked witnesses to submit videos, photographs and other evidence recorded around Tiergarten before, during and after the incident.
Most Unique Fact
The wanted suspect was reportedly already classified as potentially dangerous and had been released from juvenile detention only two months before the attack, raising urgent questions about Germany’s monitoring of known extremists.
SCN Angle
This is not only a story about an attack on Berlin Pride. It is also a major German security failure debate because the suspect was reportedly known to police, connected to the Islamist scene and previously assessed as dangerous.