Berlin police are hunting for a 21-year-old man with Islamist links after a van attack on Berlin’s Pride parade on Saturday evening left one woman dead and at least 16 injured, many seriously.
Police released a picture of the man, identified only as Abdul B, saying he is 190cm tall with black hair and of slim build. He was wearing a black hoodie and white trousers at the time of the attack, is reportedly known to police and was released earlier this year from a Berlin youth prison.
Police urged the public not to approach him but contact them instead with any information.
“Our initial suspicions are directed at this person,” said Florian Nath, Berlin police spokesman.
“We are seeking this person and haven’t found them yet.”
The vehicle used in the attack, a white mini-van, came to a halt after hitting a tree, after which the driver fled the crash scene on foot into the adjacent Tiergarten Park.
An overnight search of the park involved teams of armed police, many with sniffer dogs, with helicopters overhead equipped with floodlights.
Berlin police say there are searching for a 21-year-old suspect who they have named as Abdul B
Early on Sunday morning special forces searched a train station and apartment near the crash scene but said they were still seeking Abdul B.
Police said several survivors of the attack were being treated for stab wounds in local hospitals.
The first emergency reached Berlin’s fire brigade at 9.58pm from the scene, between the Berlin Philharmonic concert hall and the entrance to an underground traffic tunnel.
Four minutes later first responder police and fire brigade were on the scene, as the annual Christopher Street Day (CSD), one of the biggest Pride festivals in Europe, concluded nearby with an open-air concert at the Brandenburg Gate.
People wrapped in blankets stand near the scene where several people were injured on the sideline of the Christopher Street Day parade in Berlin, Germany. Photograph: EPA
Emergency services spokesman Dominik Pretz said the attack happened outside the official party mile through the city, which had been blocked off all day to cars with special barriers and police vehicles.
“But the Tiergarten park and around here was still a party area with quite a number of people out and about,” he added.
Within minutes police sealed off the crash site and investigators began probing the car, which had both airbags visibly activated.
By 11pm large areas of the park were sealed off. Armed police officers, including from Germany’s GSG9 special forces, could be seen patrolling in pairs, some with sniffer dogs.
Dozens of vehicles lined the park perimeter while armoured vehicles with floodlights moved into the heart of the park in the hope of tracking the driver.
Police, emergency personnel and attendees of the Pride event near the scene where one person was killed and around 16 injured after a car struck people. Photograph: Ralf Hirschberger/AFP via Getty Images
At the scene, Berlin’s governing Kai Wegner expressed outrage at how the city’s 48th annual CSD/Pride parade was “ended by this terrible deed”.
“But Berlin, as a city of freedom and diversity, will only get stronger,” he said. “We will not allow anyone take from us our way of living together.”
Chancellor Friedrich Merz condemned the attack, via a spokesman, as an “abominable act”.
Saturday’s parade attracted hundreds of thousands of people to the streets of the German capital and was ending with an open-air concert and food market.
Organisers immediately announced the event was over shortly after 10pm, cutting the music and projecting the word “evacuate” on a large screen beside the stage at the western side of the Brandenburg Gate.
“Sadly we have to end the concert prematurely because of a difficult situation,” said an organiser onstage, in clips circulating on social media, urging revellers to avoid the direction of the crash scene on the way out.
“The partygoers left the scene immediately in an orderly way, there was no panic,” said Pretz, emergency services spokesman.
German singer Sarah Connor, who was performing at the time the CSD show was cancelled, took to social media to offer her condolences to the families of the dead and injured.
“I am at a loss for words, I find it terrible,” she added.
This year’s CSD had a more political edge than in recent years, and adopted the slogan “taking a stand is hot”. Organisers and participating organisations urged revellers to inform and organise themselves given growing threats to the LGBTQ+ community. Early on Sunday, a planned CSD closing brunch event was cancelled.