A car drove into a crowd during Berlin’s famed Pride parade on Saturday, killing one person and injuring at least 15, prompting police to call off the event in the German capital hours after it had begun.
Police said some of the victims had life-threatening injuries. Firefighters and ambulances were out with many emergency staffers at the scene to attend to the victims.
According to police, a white van had driven into Tiergarten park, which was just off the route that the Pride march had passed along earlier, and hit several people before colliding with a tree. Police could not say how many officers had been deployed to the scene but that it was “definitely a lot of police.” They said they were searching for suspects.
“We are conducting an intensive search for possible suspects,” a police officer said on a short video released on the Berlin police account on X.
Police spokesperson Alexander Klute told The Associated Press later that “at this point, we don’t know anything about any possible motives, the identity of the perpetrator or the perpetrators, or anything of that nature.”
People embrace early on Sunday after a car drove into a crowd near Pride celebrations in Berlin. (Markus Schreiber/The Associated Press)
Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner expressed shock, saying that “following a peaceful and vibrant pride parade, the rally for a tolerant and peaceful Berlin was attacked in the most brutal manner.”
“This is an attack on our free and cosmopolitan society,” Wegner said, adding that his thoughts were with the victims, their families, and friends. “I have confidence in the police and security authorities, who will be working around the clock to investigate.”
Hundreds of thousands of people had come to Berlin on Saturday to celebrate at the city’s Pride parade, known in Germany as Christopher Street Day. It’s one of Europe’s largest 2SLGBTQ+ celebrations.
The Pride event in front of the iconic Brandenburg Gate in downtown Berlin was called off at about 10:15 p.m. local time, and a band’s performance on stage was interrupted. People were urged to go home and avoid taking the route through Tiergarten park.
People are seen near Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate after Christopher Street Day celebrations were cancelled on Saturday night. (Fabian Sommer/DPA/The Associated Press)
Before the incident, people had celebrated peacefully, marching through the city for hours, dancing to loud music, and cheering the roughly 80 floats that participated in the parade.
Julian Miethig, who had attended events at the Brandenburg Gate earlier, said he had just wanted to go to an afterparty when he heard from a friend that “something bad happened there, and there are a lot of fire trucks, a lot of emergency vehicles, ambulances.”
He said he went to Tiergarten and was shocked that something like this could have happened at Berlin’s Pride celebrations.
“It’s a dark day for the community,” Miethig said.