The Attack at a Berlin Pride Event Is Only the Most Recent Incident on a Long List Where Vehicles Were Used As Weapons

The attack at a Berlin Pride event is only the most recent incident on a long list where vehicles were used as weapons. The US, Canada, and China also saw similar attacks in recent years. A Christopher Street Day event in the German capital, which attracts thousands of people every year, was attacked on Saturday night by a 21-year-old suspect who police said was associated with the "Islamist scene" in Berlin.

One person was killed and another 16 people were injured, while the suspect, named as Abdul B., fled the scene. Two people were killed and 20 more injured in early May when a car drove through a crowd in the eastern German city of Leipzig. The suspect in the case was described as a 33-year-old German national and local resident, who had been known to police, though not for relevant offenses.

At least two people were killed and several were injured in the southwestern German city of Mannheim in 2025 when a motorist intentionally drove his car into a crowd of people, according to police and public prosecutors. Authorities identified the suspect as a 40-year-old German man. Law enforcement ruled out a political motive at the time, though the man had paid a fine under Germany's hate crime laws for a comment he made on a social media platform in 2018. A 37-year-old woman and her two-year-old daughter were killed in Munich in February last year when a car was rammed into a demonstration organized by the trade union Verdi.

A 25-year-old Afghan man subsequently went on trial for their murder, as well as the attempted murder of the dozens of other people injured in the attack. A vehicle plowed into a crowd of New Orleans revelers early on New Year's Day 2025, killing at least 10 people and injuring dozens of others. The driver of the vehicle and two police officers were killed in a firefight soon after the attack, which took place at about 3:15 in the morning local time.

The FBI said it was investigating the incident as an act of terrorism. At least six people died and more than 300 were injured when a man slammed a rented BMW SUV into a Christmas market in eastern Germany. The suspect, who was arrested at the scene, was a 50-year-old doctor originally from Saudi Arabia who had expressed anti-Muslim views and support for the far-right AfD party.

A 62-year-old driver rammed a small SUV into people exercising at a sports complex in southern China on November 11, 2024, killing 38 people in the country's deadliest act of mass homicide in years. Another 48 were injured. Authorities said the perpetrator was upset about his divorce but offered few other details about his motive.

The man was detained and sentenced to death, and executed in January 2025. Four members of a Muslim family who were out for a walk were killed when an attacker hit them with a pickup truck in what then Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called "a terrorist attack, motivated by hatred. The 23-year-old white nationalist attacker was sentenced to life in prison. A 25-year-old Canadian man drove a rented van into mostly female pedestrians on the main thoroughfare in Toronto, killing 10 people and injuring 16. He told police he belonged to the online "incel" community of sexually frustrated men.

He was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 25 years. An Uzbek national killed eight people and seriously injured 12 others when he swerved a rented pickup truck on a bike path in New York City. Reportedly spurred on by a call to action by militant group "Islamic State, he was sentenced to eight consecutive life sentences plus an additional 260 years in prison.

A man driving a van plowed into people on the Spanish city's crowded Las Ramblas boulevard, killing 14 and injuring many more. The "Islamic State" claimed responsibility, with members of the same cell carrying out a similar vehicle attack in the nearby resort town of Cambrils before being shot dead by police. The perpetrator of the Ramblas attack was killed by police on August 21 after spending several days on the run.

A white supremacist intentionally drove his car into a crowd of protesters who were opposing a "Unite the Right" rally, killing one woman and injuring dozens of people. He was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The year 2017 saw a spate of vehicle attacks in the British capital starting on March 22, when a 52-year-old UK-born man rammed an SUV into people on Westminster Bridge, killing four before stabbing a policeman to death.