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Suspect in Berlin Pride attack killed after manhunt

Jul 26, 2026, 6:22pm EDT
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German Chancellor Friedrich Merz speaks next to an altar draped in rainbow flags during a memorial service
Christian Mang/Reuters

A deadly attack on a Pride celebration in Berlin on Saturday inflamed Europe’s fraught debate over migration and extremism.

Authorities said a 21-year-old man — a German citizen whose family immigrated from Lebanon — drove a van into the crowd, killing one person and injuring more than 25.

It comes weeks ahead of regional elections in which the far-right Alternative for Germany party, which campaigns against migration and casts Islam as a threat to German society, leads in the polls.

The suspect, who was killed by police Sunday, was known to authorities and was in deradicalization consultations, Die Welt reported: His next meeting was scheduled for Monday.

Such assaults are the “inevitable consequence of a deliberately overburdened system,” Berliner Zeitung’s editor argued.

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