Berlin Pride van attack suspect killed by police in Spandau garden shed after opening fire
The man suspected of driving a vehicle into the crowd at Berlin's Pride march on Saturday was tracked to a garden shed in the Spandau district and killed in an exchange of gunfire with officers, while Belgian and Dutch officials condemned the attack and Belgium's threat assessment body saw no reason to raise its alert level.
Suspect located and killed
German police traced the alleged perpetrator of the Berlin Pride attack to a garden shed in the Spandau district of the capital. According to Bild, the man opened fire on officers when they closed in, and police returned fire, fatally wounding him. The exchange brought a violent end to a manhunt that had lasted through the night following the attack on Saturday evening, which killed and injured multiple people at the city's LGBTQI+ pride parade.
Belgian threat level unchanged
Belgium's threat analysis coordination body, Ocam, said on Sunday there was no indication of a specific threat to Belgium in the wake of the Berlin attack. The agency is evaluating any knock-on effects on the threat environment inside Belgium, as it routinely does after such incidents, but stressed that no change was warranted for the moment. The National Crisis Centre confirmed that no additional security measures were currently planned, though it called on security services to exercise heightened vigilance.
Several LGBTQI+ events are scheduled in Belgium in the coming weeks, including gatherings in Antwerp at the beginning of August. Ocam said it would incorporate data relating to the Berlin attack into its targeted assessments conducted in the immediate run-up to those events.
Political reaction in Belgium
Belgian foreign minister Maxime Prévot condemned the attack, writing on X that "what was meant to be a day of joy in Berlin ended in horror." He added that targeting a Pride march was an assault on the fundamental right to be oneself openly and without fear, calling that right non-negotiable.
S'en prendre à une marche des fiertés, c'est s'en prendre au droit fondamental d'être soi-même, ouvertement et sans crainte. Ce droit n'est pas négociable.
Prime Minister Bart De Wever posted that the freedom to be oneself is a hard-won right and would always be defended, insisting that Belgian liberties would yield neither to violence nor to fear. Prévot also sent his thoughts to the victims and their families, as well as to the police and rescue workers who worked through the night while the search for those responsible continued.
Netherlands response and WorldPride security
Dutch prime minister Rob Jetten described the attack as a direct assault on a free and tolerant society. Amsterdam is hosting its own Pride parade on Sunday as part of WorldPride, and mayor Femke Halsema announced that additional security measures would be taken wherever necessary. The killing of the suspect in Berlin is likely to ease some immediate security concerns, but the political response across the Low Countries underlined the broader unease about the targeting of LGBTQI+ gatherings.
What remains unknown
Authorities have not yet released the suspect's identity, motive, or any organisational links. The vehicle attack itself remains under investigation, and statements from Belgian and Dutch officials suggest that no related threat has been identified on their territories as of Sunday afternoon.
