Suspect in Berlin Pride attack fatally shot by police

A suspect accused of driving a minivan into a crowd near a major LGBTQ+ Pride gathering in Berlin was shot dead by law enforcement officers in the city's Spandau district, police said on July 26.

The ramming attack happened in the Tiergarten park near the Brandenburg Gate at about 10 p.m. on July 25, not far from one of Europe's biggest annual LGBTQ+ celebrations, Christopher Street Day. One person was killed and 29 were injured, authorities said.

"Around 6 p.m., the suspect involved in yesterday's attack in Tiergarten was located at an allotment garden complex in Spandau," Berlin police wrote on X.

"According to initial findings, he ran towards officers while armed with a bladed weapon; police... subsequently opened fire. Despite immediate resuscitation efforts by the Berlin Fire Department, he died at the scene."

Officials in the country confirmed one person had been shot and declared dead.

Berlin police had identified the suspect as Abdul B, 21, and published his picture, asking the public for information on his whereabouts.

The suspect had "attracted attention in the past through a high number of criminal offences, through radicalization, through membership of the Islamist scene," Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said earlier, adding that he was a German citizen of Lebanese heritage, born in Germany in 2005.

It was the latest in a series of vehicle attacks on crowds in Germany in recent years that have intensified debate around security and immigration amid a surge in support for the far-right.

Ahead of a memorial service at St Mary's Church in Berlin, centre-right Chancellor Friedrich Merz urged Germans to protect liberal values.

"We will defend the freedom, openness, and liberal spirit of our lives and our society with everything we can do," he said.