One person died and at least 29 were injured this Saturday at the Berlin Pride March after a vehicle plowed into a crowd in the center of the German capital.

The police reported that the deceased was a woman and that some of the injured had serious injuries and that their lives were at risk.

In a statement issued this morning, they indicated that the car attack injured “several people” and that, according to reports, “several people” were also injured with knives, so it is not ruled out that there were several perpetrators.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz described the event as a “horrendous act” and promised to thoroughly investigate what happened and punish the person responsible, local media reported.

Hours later, the Minister of the Interior, Alexander Dobrindt, assured that the incident was an “Islamist terrorist attack.”

“Everything we are seeing here indicates that we have suffered an Islamist terrorist attack,” declared the head of Germany's internal security.

Dobrindt did not rule out the possibility that similar acts could occur in the coming hours.

Authorities began an intense search for the suspect, who was identified as Abdul Ballout, a German citizen with Lebanese roots, and urged the population to avoid the area.

The injured were treated by emergency services near Tiergarten park, where the incident took place, police added.

The annual Pride event, known locally as Christopher Street Liberation Day, was ended following the incidents.

“We believe a vehicle entered Tiergarten Park and ran over several people, causing injuries,” police posted on social media.

Footage showed a large presence of emergency services at the scene, and a person was seen entering an ambulance on a stretcher.

Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner called the incident “an attack” on a “free and open society.”

"Berlin is a city of freedom and today our freedom has been attacked in the most atrocious way. My thoughts are with the victims, their families and their friends. I thank the emergency teams who immediately went to the scene and did everything in their power to help. Likewise, I trust the police and security authorities, who will investigate the case with the utmost urgency," Wegner wrote on the social network X.

A police spokesman told reporters at the scene that they had identified a suspected perpetrator, although he had not yet been arrested.

The suspect is known to the police as a member of the “Berlin Islamist milieu,” the spokesperson said.

"We have already identified a suspected perpetrator. Measures are being carried out against this person, who has not yet been arrested. However, this suspect is known to the police as a member of the Islamist milieu here in Berlin," he declared.

Ballout, 21, was known to police and had already been sentenced to one year and ten months in prison, but the sentence was commuted to probation, Dobrindt reported this Sunday.

The authorities have been deployed at airports, train stations and border crossings to try to find the suspect, who was born in Germany to a Lebanese family.

The suspect is described as a man with a thin build, black hair, wearing a black hoodie and white pants. It measures approximately 1.90 meters tall.

Officers have warned that he could be “armed and dangerous” and that the public should not approach him under any circumstances.

But it is not yet clear that he acted alone.

Police say “one or more people” are believed to have fled the vehicle.

Moments of panic

Eva Braungart, a journalist for the Berliner Zeitung, spoke with eyewitnesses who reported seeing a vehicle driving “at high speed” into the crowd and hearing screams.

In turn, they described a panic situation in which some people ran towards the Tiergarten park, near the emblematic Brandenburg Gate, and tried to hide, Braungart told the BBC.

Several police officers, as well as fire department rescue units, were deployed to the area.

Local media reported, based on eyewitnesses, that a white van drove at high speed through a crowd in Tiergarten park shortly after 10:00 p.m. local time (20:00 GMT).

The vehicle that police say was involved in the incident was found abandoned in Tiergarten park, police sources informed Agence France Presse.

DW journalist Jared Reid told the BBC that the vehicle appeared to have crashed into a tree before the driver presumably got out and fled on foot.

The organizers asked the public, through social networks and event screens, to leave the area in a calm and orderly manner.

A screen at the Brandenburg Gate showed the message: “Evacuation.”

On Saturday morning, a crowd participated in a parade that wound through the city and ended near the park, where several events were held in the evening.

The area was filled with people wearing rainbow-colored clothing, waving flags and banners, and celebrating the LGBT community.

The event is held annually in Berlin and, according to city authorities, close to a million people were expected to attend.

It commemorates the first known riot of the LGBT community in New York City, which occurred in 1969 at the Stonewall Inn, located on Christopher Street. On that occasion, there was a demonstration and riots after a police raid on the premises, which was later declared a place of historical interest.

The event in Berlin includes musical performances, political speeches and a large parade through the city – ending near the park – followed by a series of activities and celebrations that last into the night.

Recent history of vehicles driven into crowds in Germany

The events of Saturday night follow several incidents of this type that have occurred in recent years:

*With information from Sofia Ferreira Santos and Michael Steininger

This article was originally written in English and we used an artificial intelligence tool to translate it. A BBC journalist reviewed the text before publication. Learn more about how we use AI.

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