German police are intensively searching for the main suspect of the attack that occurred on Saturday night during the Pride march celebrations in central Berlin (Christopher Street Day, CSD), one of the largest in Europe, in which one woman died and 16 people were injured, several of them seriously, after being hit by a high-speed van.
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“Abdul B., 21, is suspected of injuring several people with a moving vehicle around 10:00 p.m. in the Tiergarten area. Apparently, one or more people subsequently exited the vehicle. In addition, several people were reportedly injured with bladed weapons,” the Police and the Berlin Public Prosecutor’s Office reported in a joint statement on Sunday, in which they already speak of an attack. According to the authorities, “this is a man known to the police and attributed to the Islamist spectrum.”
Authorities have released a photograph of the suspect and are requesting cooperation in the search for the man who is on the run. According to the police description, he is a thin man, 1.90 meters tall, with black hair, and was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and white pants. They also warn against any direct contact with the suspect because he could be armed and dangerous. So far, no arrests have been made, and authorities warn against possible fake news on social media.
Hundreds of thousands of people celebrated Pride Day in Berlin on Saturday. Around ten o’clock at night, as the party continued at the Brandenburg Gate, where there was a stage with live music after the parade that had traveled through part of the city, crossing the Tiergarten park to reach the famous Brandenburg Gate, a vehicle rammed into the crowd near Potsdam Square. As a result of the hit-and-run, one woman died and 16 people were injured, of whom 3 are in critical condition, 8 seriously, and 5 have minor injuries. After the incident, when there was still no information about what had happened, the event organizers asked those present to leave the area “due to a serious incident,” avoiding the area, and the word “evacuation” appeared on the stage screens.
According to initial investigations, the white van was driving along Ahornsteig, a path in the Tiergarten, parallel to Lennéstrasse, when it ran over people who were in the area at the time, before crashing into a tree, police explained. The driver managed to flee the scene. It is not yet clear whether Abdul B. was driving the vehicle himself. According to the police, the van was seized in the area of the scene, empty and destroyed.
Around 2:30 a.m., the alleged suspect was identified. According to police spokesman Florian Nath, he is a person belonging to the Islamist environment in Berlin. In the morning, police issued a search warrant against Abdul B. and searches related to the attack have been carried out in the German capital.
“What an atrocious act occurred in Berlin. Hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world were peacefully celebrating Christopher Street Day [CSD, as the Pride march is called]. They wanted us to treat them with respect and tolerance. This is an attack on our society,” wrote German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on the social network X. “We are an open and freedom-loving society, and that is what we will preserve and defend. This attack will be clarified and prosecuted with the full severity of the law. My thoughts are with those affected and their families. I wish a speedy recovery to the injured and thank all emergency services.”
For his part, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt stated in a communiqué: “This cowardly and abominable attack against people peacefully celebrating deeply moves me.” Meanwhile, Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner spoke of an “attack” against a “free and open-minded society.” “The gathering in favor of a tolerant and peaceful Berlin has been attacked in the most brutal way,” he wrote on X. “Berlin is the city of freedom, and our freedom has been attacked in the most atrocious way.”
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Berlin’s Interior Senator, Iris Spranger, also reacted with dismay. “I am horrified by the terrible attack that occurred during the CSD in Berlin, which thousands of participants were peacefully celebrating,” she declared, adding that “the safety of Berliners and visitors to the city is the highest priority.”
Christopher Street Day in Berlin is one of the largest Pride marches in Europe. Under the motto “Taking a stand is attractive,” hundreds of thousands of people marched through central Berlin this year to demand diversity, equality, and the rights of the LGBTI+ community. The CSD commemorates the Stonewall riots that occurred in New York on June 28, 1969. Following a police raid on the Stonewall Inn bar on Christopher Street, demonstrations and clashes with the police ensued. That day has since been considered a turning point in the fight for LGBTI+ community rights.
Saturday’s hit-and-run has brought back the worst memories of the largest jihadist attack Berlin has suffered, a mass hit-and-run at a crowded Christmas market that left 13 dead. On December 19, 2016, Islamist terrorist Anis Amri rammed a truck into people at the market in the popular Breitscheidplatz, next to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, near the Berlin Zoo.
In the attack, 13 people died and more than 60 were injured. The thirteenth victim succumbed to her serious injuries in October 2021. The terrorist initially managed to escape, which led to a major police operation. Four days later, on December 23, 2016, Amri died in Milan in a shootout with police.
German cities are usually heavily protected on the streets by bollards, and there is a broad debate about security in urban centers since mass hit-and-runs have occurred in various parts of the country. The last one took place last May in the center of Leipzig, in which two people died and another 22 were injured.
In February of last year, a car rammed into those present at a demonstration organized by a union, killing two people and injuring more than 40. A month later, in Mannheim, another vehicle ran over a commercial area in the city center, killing two people and injuring ten others. Also, in December 2024, another car rammed a Christmas market in the center of Magdeburg, killing five people and injuring more than 200.
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