On Germany's LGBTQ Pride A Van Plows Into The Crowd
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| People departing early Sunday after Berlin’s annual gay pride celebration was called off, after a car crashed into a crowd at the Tiergarten park.Credit...Annegret Hilse/Reuters |
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Jim Tankersley and Verena Hölzl reported from Berlin.
The police said a suspect was involved in local Islamic groups and that there was a “strong suspicion” it was an act of terrorism. At least one person was killed and 16 injured.
A car plowed through a park during Berlin’s biggest L.G.B.T.Q. Pride event on Saturday, killing at least one person in what the police said was a suspected act of terrorism. A search was on for at least one suspect, whom police described as a man involved in local Islamic groups.
Police said some revelers also appeared to have suffered stab wounds.
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The attack, on a side street leading out of the city’s beloved central park and away from what had been a jammed parade route, abruptly ended a celebration that drew hundreds of thousands of revelers to Berlin, and rattled a community that had spent much of the day dancing in colorful costumes under idyllic summer skies.
It also immediately reignited a debate in Germany about migration, religious extremism and public safety. It came months before Berlin and two other eastern states are set to hold closely watched regional elections, where polls already have suggested far-right parties are poised to make gains, partly on the basis of Germans’ anxieties over public violence.
“This is an attack on our society,” Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, wrote on the social media platform X early on Sunday morning. “The crime will be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” he added.
The police said the suspected attack happened shortly before 10 p.m. in the Tiergarten, a major park in the city center, and that a hunt for a suspect or suspects was underway after the vehicle was found crashed into a tree and abandoned. At least 16 people had injuries, some life-threatening, and some were said to have suffered stab wounds, according to the police.
Early Sunday, Florian Nath, a spokesman for Berlin’s police, said in an interview that they had identified one suspect: a man who was involved in local Islamic groups and who was already well-known to the police. Mr. Nath did not specify the nature of the groups.
The police later named the man as 21-year-old Abdul B., withholding the last name per German privacy laws, and released a photo in an appeal for help locating him.
Police did not say whether the suspect was an immigrant or born in Germany. Nor did they say if he had links to any foreign actors. In recent months, as the United States and Israel have engaged in war against Iran, German intelligence officials have privately warned of the threat of Tehran-sponsored attacks on German soil.
The police had a “strong suspicion” the episode was an act of terrorism, Mr. Nath said, adding that their focus was on finding the suspect and determining if he acted as part of an organized group.
Mr. Nath said earlier that the car “drove through the park and hit several people walking” in an area near the Brandenburg Gate, where the annual gay pride celebration was underway. It was not clear how the car entered the park.
The vehicle, Mr. Nath added, “didn’t exactly hit the parade,” but, by driving through the park, “attacked the people who were going away from the parade.”
The car, a white passenger vehicle, was found crashed into a tree with nobody inside, according to the city police, who asked people to submit any photos or videos to help track down suspects. The police said in a later statement that they had not ruled out the possibility that more people had been in the vehicle.
ImageTwo people walk, one covered in a gold thermal blanket and supported by the other. Emergency vehicles and workers are in the background.
People departing early Sunday after Berlin’s annual gay pride celebration was called off, after a car crashed into a crowd at the Tiergarten park.Credit...Annegret Hilse/Reuters
The remainder of Christopher Street Day, a major Pride festival that is among the biggest in Europe, was canceled. The event, named for the New York City street known for its association with the Stonewall riots that sparked the modern gay rights movement, draws hundreds of thousands of people to Berlin each year.
Early Sunday, roads near the site of the suspected attack were blocked off by a heavy police presence. Nearby, emergency personnel had erected a tent to take care of distraught witnesses. Some were seen hugging each other, and some had thermal blankets wrapped around them.
Hours earlier, barricades had blocked vehicle traffic on roads leading through the Tiergarten, while throngs of revelers, many wearing glittery, colorful outfits, danced to the throbbing sounds of techno music, spilling into cafes and beer gardens nearby.
By late evening, the sounds of celebration had given way to the blare of sirens and the drone of helicopters circling over the area.
Kai Wegner, Berlin’s mayor, condemned the attack in a post on social media and said his thoughts were with the families of the victims.
There have been several vehicle attacks in Germany in recent years in which assailants drove into crowds. The deadliest of these occurred in Magdeburg, in eastern Germany, in December 2024, when a driver plowed through a Christmas market, killing six people and injuring 309 others.
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