Shortly before 10 p.m. on a Saturday in the heart of Berlin, a white van left the road near the Tiergarten and ploughed through a crowd gathered for the closing party of the Christopher Street Day parade — one of Europe's most prominent celebrations of LGBTQ+ rights. The vehicle travelled roughly 100 metres through a park running parallel to the main boulevard before striking a tree.

According to police spokesperson Florian Nath, the driver then fled the scene on foot. Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt later disclosed that the suspect was also believed to have attacked bystanders with a blade-like weapon, possibly a machete, before disappearing into the surrounding parkland. One woman died as a result of the attack, and 29 others were injured, several of them severely. Overnight, officers combed the Tiergarten with infrared cameras in search of further suspects, after initial eyewitness accounts suggested more than one perpetrator might have been involved.

By Sunday afternoon, police confirmed that none of the remaining injured were in life-threatening condition. Chancellor Friedrich Merz described the violence on social media as "heinous," calling it an attack on German society as a whole. The chief suspect was identified on Sunday as Abdul B., a 21-year-old German citizen of Lebanese heritage who had been born in Germany.

Prosecutors said he had shared Islamic State propaganda online and had recently attempted, without success, to travel to Syria to join the militant group, though he had subsequently distanced himself from it. Authorities acknowledged he had been known to them for a series of earlier offences and for signs of radicalisation.