| Submit your comments on this article | |||||||||
| Europe | |||||||||
| Berlin: 1 dead, 16 injured in Sudden Jihad Syndrome car ramming at Pride event UPDATE: Abdul B.’s car…UPDATE 2: ISIS known wolf | |||||||||
| 2026-07-26 | |||||||||
[Powerline] A terrorist attacked a gay pride festival in Berlin, using terrorists’ favorite weapon—an automobile:At least one person was killed and several injured in Berlin on Saturday night after van drove into a crowd of people at the city’s Gay Pride festival. Fifteen people were injured, with one having died so far. German police are investigating whether the attack was terror-related, but I am not sure what there is to investigate. The perpetrator drove a car into a gay crowd at a high rate of speed, and then attacked people with a knife. There’s your investigation. I assume the terrorist was a Muslim, but it is possible he was some other kind of extremist. We will find out soon.
At least one person was killed and 17 others were injured on Saturday night, including three critically, after a white van mowed down a crowd of people at the event. A manhunt remains underway for the driver of the vehicle which onlookers say crashed into a group of people at the event at around 10pm local time at high speed. The driver allegedly attacked people with a knife after the collision, which occurred at Berlin’s Tiergarten park. The suspect later fled the scene on foot and remains at large. "Based on the investigators’ initial findings, we have already identified a suspected perpetrator," Florian Nath, a spokesman for Berlin police, said, adding that the force’s search for the suspect was "proceeding at full speed". "He is known to us as a member of Islamic circles here in Berlin."
At least one person has died and 16 people were maimed, "some seriously", police said, after a vehicle was driven into a crowd near Berlin's annual Pride event, Christopher Street Day (CSD) on Saturday night. Berlin's CSD is one of Europe's biggest Pride events celebrating the LGBTQ+ community. It attracts tens of thousands of visitors from around the world each year. Police spokesperson Florian Nath said a suspect has been identified who was known to police and "is believed to be associated with the Islamist scene in Berlin." It was unclear whether there were other perpetrators. No arrests have been made yet. Nath said a woman had died at the scene, without providing further details. Three of the 16 injured had suffered "life-threatening injuries," Nath told news hounds. The city's fire department said eight people were seriously injured, with five sustaining minor injuries. Nath added that more than 2,200 personnel were involved in the police response, including officers from Hamburg and other federal states. The vehicle in question is a white minivan or compact SUV, he said. DW news hounds on the scene in Berlin said coppers armed with machine guns were patrolling the streets of the German capital. Police said early on Sunday morning that the Tiergarten remained closed off. "We are now piecing together the facts based on the evidence found at the scene. The search radius covers the entire city," Nath said. "We need to use daylight tomorrow to meticulously examine the evidence." PRIDE PARADE PARTICIPANTS TOLD TO 'GO HOME, PLEASE' Hundreds of thousands of people had taken to the streets of Berlin on Saturday to advocate for tolerance and diversity, culminating in concerts at the Brandenburg Gate. The event was called off around 10:15 p.m., and a band's performance was interrupted. Authorities urged people to "go home, please," and avoid routes through Tiergarten. The CSD parade ended on 17 June Street, which crosses Berlin's Tiergarten to the Brandenburg Gate. The Gate has been the venue for concerts since Friday. Berlin's CSD was first held in 1979, making it Germany's oldest Pride event. Its name comes from Christopher Street — the site of the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City. CSD has since evolved from a small protest into a major fixture of the city's cultural and political calendar. GERMANY'S HISTORY OF CAR RAMMINGS Germany has seen a number of car rammings at major public events in recent years. In 2016, a Tunisian-born man drove a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people, in the deadliest Islamist attack in Germany's postwar history. In 2024, a man plowed his car into a busy Christmas market in the city of Magdeburg, killing at least two people and injuring more than 60. The perpetrator was a Saudi-born atheist who held anti-Islamic and far-right beliefs. Earlier this year, two people were killed after a man drove a car through a crowd in the eastern German city of Leipzig. Investigators treated the incident as a rampage and the suspect, a German national, was remanded to a psychiatric hospital.
Police spokesperson Florian Nath said a suspect has been identified who was known to police and "is believed to be associated with the Islamist scene in Berlin." In a later statement, police named 21-year-old Abdul B. as the man they are hunting, describing him as of slim build, around 1.9 meters tall, with black hair. He was wearing a black hoodie and white pants.
It was unclear whether there were other perpetrators. No arrests have been made yet. Three of the 16 injured had suffered "life-threatening injuries," Nath told reporters. The city's fire department said eight people were seriously injured, with five sustaining minor injuries.
The Bild and Spiegel news sites said the 21-year-old man, named by police as Abdul B, was previously convicted for related offences. The media outlets said B. last year travelled to the Middle East in a failed attempt to join IS. He was then convicted in Germany of "preparing a serious act of subversive violence," the papers report. German police have not confirmed the reports, but are due to issue an updated statement on the attack later on Sunday.
Although authorities are doing a better job of monitoring and foiling threats, he said that the Berlin attack appeared to have been carried out by "a minor figure, with a prior criminal record, but no clear affiliation [to Islamist terrorism] and no clear online warning that he was preparing to attack." Asked how the suspect was able to drive into Berlin's Tiergarten so easily despite barriers being installed, Bossong said: "It depends on the time and locality. In this case, Tiergarten is a large area, the ceremony was closing, so maybe the traffic restrictions had been relaxed."
Berlin Police identified “Abdul B.” as their main suspect, releasing a picture of the 21-year-old as they conduct a large-scale manhunt. The force said that there may be more suspects yet to be identified. A spokesman earlier revealed that the suspect was known to police as an “Islamist”. It has been reported that the suspect may still be armed, with some witnesses claiming that he was carrying a machete as he fled the scene. The Bild newspaper identified the suspect as “Abdul Ballut”, who they reported was born in Germany but came from a Lebanese family. The paper further reported that his apartment was located just a few hundred meters from the site of the terror attack on Saturday evening. German paper of record Die Welt reported that Abdul was previously identified as a threat by police and had been in juvenile detention as recently as May for having attempted to incite or threaten a terror attack. He was also said to have claimed to have contacts with the ISIS terror network. After being released in May, Abdul was reportedly put on probation and was instructed to attend de-radicalisation counselling sessions, the third of which was scheduled for Monday. While it is yet to be confirmed that he was a supporter of the so-called Islamic State, Die Welt noted that the U.S. State Department had specifically warned in 2024 that ISIS had called on supporters to attack Pride events in Europe. Vehicle terror attacks have previously been used by jihadists in Berlin, including the Christmas market attack in 2016, carried out by a Tunisian asylum seeker, who stole a truck and rammed it into a crowd of revellers, killing 13 and injuring around 70. Despite authorities consistently noting that Islamist terrorism remains the largest threat in Europe, organisers of the Christopher Street Day Pride Parade event had complained earlier this week that they felt “afraid” over the rising popularity of the anti-mass migration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
| |||||||||
| Posted by:Frank G |
| #13 |
| Posted by: Ebbuger Whuque4103 2026-07-26 17:14 |
| #12 |
| Posted by: Lord Garth 2026-07-26 14:57 |
| #11 |
| Posted by: Frank G 2026-07-26 14:47 |
| #10 |
| Posted by: Lord Garth 2026-07-26 14:46 |
| #9 |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2026-07-26 14:34 |
| #8 |
| Posted by: Frank G 2026-07-26 13:53 |
| #7 |
| Posted by: Grom the Reflective 2026-07-26 13:50 |
| #6 |
| Posted by: European Conservative 2026-07-26 13:48 |
| #5 |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2026-07-26 12:36 |
| #4 |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2026-07-26 11:35 |
| #3 |
| Posted by: DooDahMan 2026-07-26 11:04 |
| #2 |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2026-07-26 10:58 |
| #1 |
| Posted by: DooDahMan 2026-07-26 10:43 |