By Kirsti Knolle, Miranda Murray and Markus Wacket
BERLIN, July 26 (Reuters) - Germany’s government pledged to bring to justice those responsible for Saturday night’s deadly attack near a Pride event in Berlin, as police asked the public to help them track down a suspect they identified as an Islamist.
A white vehicle ploughed into a crowd in the Tiergarten park near the city’s Brandenburg Gate at about 10 p.m. (2000 GMT) not far from one of Europe’s biggest annual LGBTQ Pride celebrations, Christopher Street Day. One person was killed and 16 injured, eight seriously, emergency services said.
“This cowardly, despicable attack on people celebrating peacefully has shaken me to my core,” Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said in a statement.
“We will do everything to quickly investigate this horrific act and what lies behind it and bring those responsible to justice.”
BERLIN POLICE HUNT SUSPECT IDENTIFIED AS KNOWN ISLAMIST
Berlin police said overnight they had identified a suspect who was previously known to them and part of the “Islamist spectrum”, later naming him as Abdul B and publishing his picture.
They called on members of the public to help find him.
“Who can share anything about his current whereabouts?” a police statement posted online said, describing him as slim, around 1.90 m (6 foot 2 inches) tall, with black hair, and last seen wearing a black hooded top and white trousers.
It was not clear whether the perpetrator acted alone. Police said more than one person may have got out of the vehicle after it came to a halt.
Of the 16 people who were injured in the attack, some had suffered stab wounds, the police added. The fire service said three of the injured were in a life-threatening condition.
Christopher Street Day organisers cancelled the remainder of the events.
Much about the incident remained unclear.
While the police described the white vehicle involved in the attack only vaguely as possibly a car or minivan or minibus, tabloid newspaper Bild said it was a white Citroen Space Tourer delivery vehicle that Abdul B rented himself.
Bild reported that police were also searching for a second suspected attacker, but that was not confirmed in the latest police updates.
“According to our latest information, the vehicle drove … into the Tiergarten around 10 p.m., injuring several people in the process, and then came to a standstill after hitting a tree here in the Tiergarten,” a police spokesperson at the scene said overnight.
“It was empty, which is why we are currently working intensively to track down the perpetrator or perpetrators.”
MERZ GOVERNMENT UNDER PRESSURE BEFORE ELECTIONS
The attack comes at a sensitive time for conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s unpopular coalition government, which is going through a bruising cabinet reshuffle as critics accuse it of being ineffective.
State elections are due in two months, with the far-right opposition party Alternative for Germany (AfD) campaigning on issues including immigration and security in a bid to secure leadership of a state government for the first time.
The AfD was quick to comment on the attack.
“We will not allow religious extremists to divide our country with violence and intolerance!” AfD co-chief Tino Chrupalla said on X.
(Reporting by Kirsti Knolle and Markus Wacket;Writing by Francois Murphy;Editing by Helen Popper)
