A day of concerts, celebration, and music for Berlin Pride, one of the largest LGBTQ+ parades in Europe, ended in terror. Around 10 p.m. , a white van was seen entering the Tiergarten park and plowing into the crowd gathered there, killing one person—a woman—and injuring 29 others, none of whom are in life-threatening conditions.
According to information currently available to the Farnesina, no Italians are involved.
Manhunt, accomplice arrested
According to German broadcaster RBB, one arrest has been made: an Iranian man who, according to police, was aboard the van that plowed into the crowd . His whereabouts are being investigated; it's unclear whether the main suspect had accomplices.
And the prime suspect, for whom a massive manhunt has been launched, is Abdul Ballout, 21 , already known to the authorities and linked to "Islamist circles." According to investigators, he was the driver of the vehicle. He had been sentenced to one year and ten months for "preparing an act of serious violence that endangered state security." After a brief stint in pre-trial detention, he was released. Furthermore, the young man had attempted to join ISIS in Syria in 2025, but was arrested in Lebanon . A German citizen of Lebanese origin (his mother obtained citizenship in 2002, he was born in 2005), he was repatriated to Germany.
A manhunt has been launched across Germany and six other countries to find him. Police have released a photo of the 21-year-old, warning residents to be vigilant because he is still out there and may be armed.
Ballout was scheduled to attend 26 sessions at a counseling center specializing in deradicalization and the prevention of extremism. The reason for this was several social media posts in which he allegedly declared his support for a terrorist group. He attended the first two sessions, on June 15 and July 9, voluntarily. A third session was scheduled for July 27, or tomorrow. According to Bild, a decision was then to be made as to whether the counseling was appropriate. He was in the so-called "evaluation process."
Machete and knife also used
The young man fled on foot when the vehicle, a white Citroen, struck a crowd and crashed into a tree. "We are actively searching for one or more people suspected of being involved in the accident," police said, having deployed a "massive deployment of forces" and cordoned off the area between Potsdamer Platz and the southern side of the Tiergarten tunnel in search of clues and evidence. Several people were also injured by stab wounds; the attacker, after exiting the vehicle, attacked passersby with a knife and a machete. "An integral part of the investigation," police explained, "is to determine whether there was a second phase of the crime after the one in which the vehicle was in motion. Whether someone then exited the vehicle and attacked people with possibly stabbed weapons, injuring them." The vehicle, empty and severely damaged, was seized.
The statements
German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt bluntly described it as an "Islamist terrorist attack." He warned that "we cannot rule out the possibility of further terrorist attacks. This is unusual in these circumstances, but it cannot be ruled out."
Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner called it an "attack on our free and globally inclusive society. Berlin is the city of freedom—and today our freedom has been attacked in the most terrible way."
"We will work with particular determination to thoroughly investigate this abominable act and ensure it is punished," said German Chancellor Friedrich Merz , who later attended the afternoon religious service celebrated by the bishop, called to remember the victim and support the injured. Before entering the Church of Santa Maria, Merz said: "We will defend with all our strength the freedom, openness, and generosity of our lives and our society, and we will do so together. These acts have one goal: they want to divide our society, they want to deprive us of the most important thing we have, namely our openness and our freedom. Let us not allow ourselves to be intimidated; we are more numerous, we are stronger ."
Pride and the trail of attacks
Yesterday, hundreds of thousands of people participated in Christopher Street Day (CSD) under the slogan "Haltung ist hot" (Taking a stand is hot). The annual CSD demonstrations commemorate June 28, 1969, when police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City. Days of clashes with activists followed, events widely considered the birth of the modern gay rights movement.
The German capital is still reeling from the stabbing of a Spanish tourist near the Holocaust Memorial in February 2025, just two days before parliamentary elections. In early March, a young Syrian man was sentenced to 13 years in prison for the attack—one of many, mostly committed by foreigners—that fueled the rise of the German far right.
(Unioneonline/D)