Police hunting for Berlin Pride attacker, name Islamist suspect

By Kirsti Knolle

BERLIN, July 26 (Reuters) – Berlin police have published a picture of a 21-year-old Islamist man suspected of carrying out Saturday night’s attack at the Pride celebration in which ​a vehicle rammed into a crowd, killing one person ‌and injuring more than a dozen.

In Sunday’s online post, police urged members of the public to help them find the man identified as Abdul B, adding that it was not clear whether he acted alone. They said more than one ‌person ​may have got out of the vehicle ⁠after it came to ⁠a halt close to the city’s Brandenburg Gate.

Three of the 16 people who were injured in the attack were in a life-threatening condition, and some of the injuries included stab wounds, police ​and emergency services said.

Organisers of the annual Christopher Street Day celebrations, Berlin’s annual LGBTQ Pride, cancelled the remainder of the events.

SUSPECTED PERPETRATOR

Police ⁠described the wanted man as slim, ⁠around 1.90 metres (6 foot 2) tall, with black hair, ​and last seen wearing a black hooded top and white trousers. They ​said he was part of the “Islamist spectrum”.

“Who can share anything ‌about his current whereabouts?” the statement said.

Several key details about the incident remained unclear.

While the police described the white vehicle 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. The police are also searching for a second suspected attacker, ⁠Bild reported.

Police said the ‌vehicle came to a stop in the central ⁠Tiergarten park.

“According to our latest information, the vehicle ​drove … into ‌the Tiergarten around 10 p.m. (2000 GMT), 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.”

(Reporting by Kirsti Knolle;Writing by Francois Murphy;Editing ​by Helen Popper)