Berlin Pride attack leaves one dead, police hunt suspect Abdul B

A van drove into a crowd near Berlin’s Christopher Street Day Pride event in Tiergarten park, close to the Brandenburg Gate, shortly before 22:00 local time on July 25, killing one person and injuring at least 16 others, some seriously. Berlin police called off the Pride parade and a concert after the attack.

Police identified a 21-year-old suspect as Abdul B, but said he had not been found. Berlin police said he had ties to Islamic “circles” in the German capital, and investigators were seeking his arrest. The BBC said police urged people to avoid the area as officers worked through the aftermath near one of Berlin’s most heavily visited central sites.

Christopher Street Day is one of Berlin’s biggest annual LGBTQ+ events and typically draws thousands of people, which made the attack resonate far beyond the immediate scene in Tiergarten. The cancellation of the parade and concert halted a public celebration that is built around visibility in the city’s streets rather than inside controlled venues.

The attack also landed against a record of rising concern around violence aimed at Pride gatherings in Germany. Deutsche Welle said in an April 8, 2025 background piece that Berlin CSD was the latest in a string of deadly vehicle attacks. The Guardian wrote in July 2025 that Germany’s Pride parades were facing a rise in attacks, while The Irish Times described Berlin as a city where queer venues had faced a growing burden from homophobic violence, including one owner filing 45 police complaints in 18 months.

That context has sharpened the pressure on city officials and organizers to keep LGBTQ events public without leaving crowds exposed. In Berlin, the immediate challenge was to secure a major civic gathering in the heart of the capital after a vehicle reached a Pride crowd near the Brandenburg Gate.