Police hunt for suspect after one killed and 16 injured in attack at Berlin Pride
Authorities issue wanted notice for Abdul Ballout, 21, after deadly van ramming described as Islamist terrorism
German authorities have issued a wanted notice for a suspect in a deadly van ramming near Berlin’s Pride festival that has been described as an Islamist attack.
The interior minister, Alexander Dobrindt, named the chief suspect as 21-year-old Abdul Ballout. German media reported he was a supporter of Islamic State with a criminal conviction in May.
Dobrindt said all the evidence surrounding Saturday night’s attack, which left one person dead and at least 16 wounded, pointed to Islamist terrorism. “We are dealing here with a suspected perpetrator, who had previously drawn attention to himself through a high volume of criminal offences, radicalisation and affiliation with the Islamist scene,” he told a press conference near the site of the attack.
Police and prosecutors have asked for help in finding Ballout, who is a German citizen. They said he was believed to have injured several people with a moving vehicle on Saturday night, and that one or more people apparently then left that vehicle. Several people were also apparently stabbed, they added.
Sunday’s notice warned the public to avoid “direct contact” with the suspect, saying that he may be armed and dangerous.
Police had said earlier that they had identified a suspect with ties to Islamist groups in the German capital.
“The suspect is known to police. He is known to us as a member of Islamist circles here in Berlin, and our search for this person is proceeding at full speed,” police spokesperson Florian Nath said.
Nath added that “we still have no information whatsoever regarding his specific motives, the exact sequence of events, or his role in the crime itself”.
German media reported on Sunday that the chief suspect last year travelled to the Middle East in a failed attempt to join Islamic State. He was then convicted in Germany of “preparing a serious act of subversive violence,” Bild and Spiegel newspapers reported.
The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, vowed to punish those responsible.
The attack forced organisers to cut short one of Europe’s largest Pride events and comes as Germany remains on edge after a series of deadly vehicle and knife attacks.
Hours after the apparent attack many details remained unclear, but police said the vehicle struck multiple people after charging into the city’s central Tiergarten park close to the Brandenburg Gate.
Police said those hurt “included several with life-threatening injuries”.
The driver of a white van had swerved shortly before 10pm into the Tiergarten, close to the route of the Pride march earlier in the day, hitting people on a path and crashing into a tree, police said.
“[The vehicle] was empty, which is why we are currently working intensively to track down the perpetrator or perpetrators,” police said. Tabloid newspaper Bild cited a witness as saying that a man emerged from the vehicle and fled on foot.
A manhunt involving helicopters and officers from several German states was under way across the capital on Sunday.
A Berlin fire department spokesperson, Dominik Pretz, said one person died and at least 16 others were injured.
Emergency workers set up a helicopter landing pad near the Reichstag parliament building to transport the injured to hospitals.
Merz said in a statement that he and Dobrindt would “push to make sure this horrific act is fully investigated and punished”.
Julian Methig, who attended the event, described it as a terrible day. “It’s one of the worst days for the queer community and a day I personally hoped I’d never have to experience … I’m shocked.”
Hundreds of thousands of people had gathered in the German capital in warm summer sunshine to celebrate the pride parade.
It is known in Germany as Christopher Street Day (CSD), named after the site of the Stonewall Inn in New York City where riots against police raids touched off the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement. CSD was first held in West Berlin in 1979.
Berlin’s mayor, Kai Wegner, called the deadly assault “an attack on our free and cosmopolitan society”.
“Following a peaceful and colourful CSD, the rally for a tolerant and peaceful Berlin was attacked in the most brutal manner,” he said on X. “Berlin is the city of freedom – and our freedom has today been attacked in the most appalling way. My thoughts are with the victims, their families and friends.”
For the first time in its history, CSD began on Friday night this year with a pro-democracy political rally. Berlin will hold a state election in September.
The parade on Saturday ran under the motto “Taking a stand is hot” which organisers said was “in response to increasing hostility” to queer people in Germany.
More than 80 floats and 50 groups on foot joined the procession through the city centre past Potsdamer Platz and the Victory Column monument in the Tiergarten, culminating in a rally at the Brandenburg Gate.
Earlier in the day one person was arrested for resisting police orders at a far-right counterprotest.
Before last year’s pride parade, Berlin LGBTQ+ organisations sounded the alarm that attacks had become more frequent while hard-won rights were under threat.
Campaigners said a rise in hostility has accompanied the surge in support for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party, now the most popular party in national opinion polls, as well as an increase in Islamist-inspired attacks.
European leaders offered solidarity. “Italy firmly condemns and opposes all forms of hate and extremism,” prime minister Giorgia Meloni wrote on X, adding: “We stand with Germany and the German people”. French president Emmanuel Macron said: “Faced with hatred and violence, our response will always be unity, freedom, and resolve”.
The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, a German centre-right politician allied with Merz, sent her deepest sympathy to the victims of the attack, describing the Christopher Street Day parade as standing for “freedom, dignity and equality – the fundamental values of the EU”.
UK foreign secretary Ed Miliband said he was “horrified by the appalling attack in Berlin”, adding that he had spoken to his counterpart, Johann Wadephul, “to convey the UK’s solidarity: we stand with Germany”.