{
  "id": 18400,
  "title": "Car ramming attacks: Why do they keep happening?",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/07/27/car-ramming-attacks-why-do-they-keep-happening",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-07-27T09:44:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Deutsche Welle Science",
    "slug": "deutsche-welle-science",
    "url": "https://www.dw.com/en/car-ramming-attacks-why-do-they-keep-happening/a-71827106?maca=en-rss-en-science-4552-rdf"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The deadly vehicle attack in Germany has reignited concerns about vehicles being used as weapons after a series of similar incidents worldwide. On Saturday evening, a vehicle struck a crowd near Berlin’s Christopher Street Day (CSD) Pride celebrations, resulting in one fatality and over a dozen injuries. The attack took place in the Tiergarten area near the Brandenburg Gate, where hundreds of thousands gathered for Europe’s largest LGBTQ+ event. German authorities launched a large-scale manhunt and identified a 21-year-old suspect with alleged ties to Islamist circles. The incident underscores a troubling question raised by numerous attacks in recent years: why do vehicles so frequently become weapons? Cars’ size, speed, and maneuverability make them potentially deadly. In recent years, they have increasingly been used to kill or maim people. During the early 2010s, cars became prominent as weapons in terrorist attacks in Israel amid ongoing conflict with local militant groups. The Islamic State group also encouraged this tactic during the mid-2010s. In Europe, high-profile attacks include those in Nice (86 killed by a truck), Westminster Bridge (London), Barcelona, and the 2016 Berlin Christmas market attack (13 killed). Cars have also been used in various attacks in China and the US. While many of these attacks had religious and political motivations, they are not always linked. Some recent ramming incidents in Germany, such as those in Magdeburg (2024) and Munich (2025), had no common ideological thread. The perpetrators vary, including a Saudi national with anti-Islam beliefs, a pro-Islamist individual, and a German-born individual with no extremist history. Sociologist Vincent Miller and criminology professor Keith Hayward suggest car rammings function like \"memes,\" offering a model for others to replicate rather than promoting specific ideological motivations. Often, these attacks are spur-of-the-moment, diverse in nature, and difficult to define in terms of the perpetrator's profile. The common factor among these attacks is the act itself, which may be influenced by exposure to the concept through media and social media. Potential preventative measures include restricting access to rented vehicles, enforcing stronger identification requirements, and implementing geofencing technology to create virtual boundaries around certain areas. Redesigning urban spaces to separate roads and footpaths or employing physical barriers like bollards are additional options. However, the effectiveness of these measures remains uncertain. Authorities continue to investigate the Berlin attack.",
  "summary": "Cars are being used as weapons, to ram, kill and maim innocent people. The reasons why are not always clear, nor are solutions to preventing such attacks.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}