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Hamburg celebrated its annual Pride event, one of Germany’s biggest, with increased security on Saturday, one week after a deadly attack near Berlin’s pride parade that shocked the country.
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Organisers expected around 250,000 people to attend the parade, which this year has the motto “Queer in solidarity. Take a stand — for a future without fear.”
A late addition to the trucks taking part was one representing the Berlin Pride event — or Christopher Street Day, CSD for short, as the parades are known in Germany. People on that truck were asked to wear dark clothing as a sign of respect for the victims of last week’s attack, where one person was killed and 29 others injured.
Late on July 25, a man plowed a van into people a few hundred metres from the closing party of the Berlin Pride event before cutting others with what appears to have been a machete.
The 21-year-old suspect, Abdul Ballout, was killed in a confrontation with police on Sunday. Investigators later found a video in which a person believed to be the suspect claimed responsibility and pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.
Prosecutors have said Ballout, who was born in Germany and has Lebanese roots, travelled to Lebanon in 2025 with the goal of going to Syria to join IS. He made contact with several people who were presumed members.
Hamburg’s police chief said earlier this week that roughly twice as many officers as last year would protect the Hamburg event.
“After the brutal attack on the CSD in Berlin, many are unsure in the queer community but also in society whether here and today is the right place,” Hamburg’s deputy mayor, Katharina Fegebank, told RTL television.
“I say, now more than ever, let’s all take to the streets, stand up for diversity, for freedom, for an open society, and above all, in full solidarity with and for the queer community,” she added.
“Well, when something like that happens, we all have to show that we’re not afraid, that we won’t let it get us down,” said Petra Schwab, who was attending Saturday’s Pride in Hamburg.
Additional sources • AP