Police shoot dead the suspect of the Berlin attack during Pride

BarcelonaThe German police have shot dead the suspect in a fatal hit-and-run at a Pride event in Berlin on Saturday night that left at least one person dead and twenty-nine injured – some seriously. The Interior Ministry is treating the incident as a terrorist attack and the police had made a large deployment to find the driver, whom they accuse of having links to Islamist circles. "Everything we see here indicates that we are dealing with an Islamist attack," said Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, who has pledged to bring those responsible to justice.

The accident occurred on Saturday around 10:00 PM when a car, presumably a white van, rammed into the crowd celebrating Pride in the Tiergarten park in the German capital. After directing the vehicle against the celebrations from Lennéstrasse, one or two men reportedly got out of the vehicle and fled on foot, injuring some people with a knife during their escape. Emergency services rushed to the scene of the incident to treat the injured. In an initial assessment, firefighters reported that three people's lives were at risk.

The police had launched a search operation for the suspect, identified as a 21-year-old man from the "Islamist spectrum," and had extended the search to the country's borders, airports, and train stations. According to the Interior Minister, the alleged perpetrator had a history of "criminal offenses, radicalization, and affiliation with the Islamist scene," and security sources inform Reuters that he had only left a juvenile detention center two months ago. "It cannot be ruled out that these horrific acts, these terrorist attacks, may inspire copycats," Dobrindt added.

In the morning, security forces searched the home of the boy's family – a German of Lebanese origin – in the Schöneberg district, in southwest Berlin, without success. It wasn't until 7:00 PM that evening that they found him and shot him dead in a garden complex in the Berlin suburb of Spandau, according to broadcaster rbb. Earlier, an Iranian citizen had been arrested as a suspected accomplice in the hit-and-run, according to Berlin-Brandenburg public broadcasting.

The events forced the cancellation of the annual Pride event. The annual Berlin Pride march, also known as Christopher Street Day, attracts hundreds of thousands of people who demonstrate and celebrate the rights of communities queer. It is the largest of a series of similar events throughout Germany.

The incident has shocked the LGBTI community and has sparked a wave of solidarity around the world. One of the most emotional messages has been from Alfonso Pantisano, commissioner for LGBTI affairs of the Berlin state government, who was at the Brandenburg Gate during the celebration: "To you, dear community: I know many of you are scared, right now. I won't sugarcoat it; neither am I. But you are not alone in this fear, in your pain, and in your anger," he wrote.

Fuel for the far-right

"We will do everything possible to stop the perpetrator or perpetrators, we will think about the consequences" and "we will decide with determination," promised German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, at the entrance to the memorial service for the victims of the attack. "These criminals, these extremists have no place in our society. We will not allow this poison of terrorism and this poison against our freedom to continue to spread in our society," he added.

"This cowardly and despicable attack on people peacefully celebrating has deeply shocked me – assured the Minister of the Interior, Alexander Dobrindt, in a statement –. We will do everything possible to quickly investigate this horrible act and what is behind it, and to bring those responsible to justice."

The attack comes at a delicate moment for the coalition government of conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz, which is in a slump and has had to carry out an intense cabinet reshuffle to address criticism. The German leader feels that the far-right party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), is nipping at his heels with increasingly better poll results.

With only two months to go until the state elections, incidents like this are emboldening the far-right, which has placed immigration and security at the center of its campaign, in an attempt to fight to secure the leadership of a state government for the first time. "We will not allow religious extremists to divide our country with violence and intolerance!", said AfD co-chair Tino Chrupalla, on the X network.