German Chancellor Merz vows justice after 1 killed, 16 injured in car attack near Berlin Gay Pride event

• A car attack near Berlin’s Pride event killed one person and injured 16, forcing organisers to cut the event short and police to search for the suspects.
• German Chancellor Merz and Interior Minister Dobrindt vowed to fully investigate and punish those responsible for the violent act.
• The attack follows a series of recent deadly vehicle and knife attacks in Germany, heightening security concerns at public events.

BERLIN - German Chancellor Friedrich Merz vowed on July 26 to punish those responsible after a car struck people on the outskirts of Berlin’s Gay Pride celebrations, killing at least one person and wounding 16 others.

The attack forced organisers to cut short one of Europe’s largest Pride events and comes as Germany remains on edge after a series of deadly vehicle and knife attacks in recent years.

“A vehicle entered the Tiergarten park and hit several people and injured them” just before 10pm (4am July 26, Singapore time), police posted on social media, later adding that they were hunting for the occupants of the car.

Berlin fire department spokesman Dominik Pretz said one person died and 16 others were injured.

Police told AFP they had found the car they suspected had been involved in the incident abandoned in the Tiergarten park.

Police told AFP they had found the car they thought had been involved in the incident abandoned in the Tiergarten park.

Merz said in a statement that he and Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt would “push to make sure this horrific act is fully investigated and punished”.

Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner said in a post on X that a “gathering for a tolerant and peaceful Berlin has been most brutally attacked”.

The Gay Pride event was cut short and police told participants to “Go home, please.”

An eyewitness by the main Pride stage at Brandenburg Gate said the crowd complied with the request to leave and head away from the park shortly at around 11pm.

The programme at the main stage had been scheduled to continue until midnight.

An AFP journalist in the area saw at least 10 emergency service vehicles at the scene and a tent set up in the road.

Police officers could be seen patrolling the huge area of the park.

Violent attacks

Earlier on July 25, hundreds of thousands of people took part in the event, called Christopher Street Day in Germany.

The march ended next to the Brandenburg Gate, which has been the venue for concerts since July 24.

Germany has in recent years seen several violent attacks at public spaces, including a stabbing in February 2025 at Berlin’s Holocaust memorial, a stone’s throw from the scene of Saturday’s incident.

A 20-year-old Syrian man named only as Wassim Al M. was jailed in March for 13 years for that attack, in which a Spanish tourist was seriously injured.

In June, Taleb Jawad al-Abdulmohsen, a 51-year-old Saudi psychiatrist, was sentenced to life in prison for killing six people and wounding more than 300.

He drove a rented SUV through a crowded Christmas market in 2024 in the easter city of Magedburg.

Abdulmohsen was an anti-Islam activist and his testimony at his trial was sometimes incoherent and riddled with conspiracy theories and fringe far-right ideas.

The deadliest such attack in recent years was a truck rampage at a Berlin Christmas market in December 2016 that killed 12 people. AFP