New York City’s Pride March concludes the city’s Pride Month
The annual Pride Parade celebrating the LGBTQ+ community concluded Pride Month in New York.
The German government has vowed to bring those responsible for the deadly July 25 attack near Berlin’s Pride event to justice, as police urge the public to help track down a suspect they have identified as an Islamist.
A white car plowed into a crowd in Tiergarten Park near the Brandenburg Gate at around 10pm, near Christopher Street Day, Europe’s largest annual LGBTQ pride festival. According to emergency services, one person was killed and 16 people were injured, eight of them seriously.
Interior Minister Alexander Dobrint said in a statement: “This despicable and despicable attack on peacefully celebrating people has shaken me to the core.”
“We will swiftly investigate this horrific act and what lies behind it and will do everything in our power to bring those responsible to justice.”
Berlin police searching for suspect
Berlin police announced overnight that they had identified a suspect they had known and who was part of the “Islamist spectrum”, later naming him Abdul B., and released a photo of him.
They appealed to the public to help search for him.
“Can anyone tell me anything about his current whereabouts?” A police statement posted online said the man was approximately 6 feet 2 inches tall, slim, with dark hair, and was last seen wearing a black hooded jacket and white pants.
It is not clear whether the perpetrator committed the crime alone. Police said multiple people may have gotten out of the vehicle after it stopped.
Police added that among the 16 people injured in the attack, some suffered stab wounds. Fire officials said three of the injured had life-threatening injuries.
Organizers of Christopher Street Day have canceled the remaining events.
Much of the incident remained unknown.
Police have only vaguely described the white vehicle involved in the attack as possibly a car, minivan or minibus, but tabloid Bild reported that it was a white Citroën Space Tourer delivery vehicle that Abdul B had rented himself.
Bild newspaper reported that police were also searching for a second suspected attacker, but this was not confirmed in the latest police information.
“According to our latest information, the car crashed into the Tiergarten around 10pm, injuring several people in the process, before coming to rest after colliding with a tree here in the Tiergarten,” police at the scene said in a statement overnight.
“It was empty, so we are currently focusing our efforts on tracking down the culprit.”
Merz administration under pressure before election
The attack comes at a sensitive time for conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s unpopular coalition government. The coalition government has been criticized by critics as ineffective and is undergoing a painful cabinet reshuffle.
State elections are scheduled for two months, and the far-right opposition party Alternative for Germany (AfD) is campaigning on issues such as immigration and security in its bid to secure leadership of the state government for the first time.
AfD immediately commented on the attack.
“We will not allow religious extremists to divide our country with violence and intolerance!” AfD co-chairman Tino Churupala told X.
