Many details remain unclear after apparent attackManhunt launched for member of the city’s “Islamist scene”Police describe white vehicle that crashed into a treeEight seriously wounded, three people’s lives at risk<\/p>\n
A suspected perpetrator of the apparent car attack on Pride celebrations in Berlin on Saturday night has been identified as a member of the city’s “Islamist scene” but he has not yet been arrested, a spokesman for Berlin police said on Sunday.<\/p>\n
One person was killed and 17 injured, with some in life-threatening condition, after the vehicle drove into a crowd near Berlin’s Pride celebrations on Saturday evening, setting off a manhunt for the driver.<\/p>\n
“We have now identified a suspected perpetrator. Measures against this suspected perpetrator, who has not yet been arrested, are under way. However, this suspected perpetrator is known to the police as a member of the Islamist scene here in Berlin,” the spokesperson told reporters at the scene.<\/p>\n
Hours after the apparent attack many details remained unclear, but police said the vehicle struck multiple people after charging into the city’s central Tiergarten park close to the Brandenburg Gate.<\/p>\n
“According to our latest information, the vehicle drove … into the Tiergarten around 10pm, injuring several people in the process, and then came to a standstill after hitting a tree here in the Tiergarten,” a police spokesperson at the scene said.<\/p>\n
“It was empty, which is why we are currently working intensively to track down the perpetrator or perpetrators.”<\/p>\n
Eight seriously injured<\/p>\n
Among the 17 injured, eight had serious injuries and of those, three were in life-threatening condition, a fire brigade spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
The police said the vehicle was white, describing it as possibly a car or minivan or minibus. Tabloid newspaper Bild cited a witness as saying it was a van and that a man emerged from it and fled on foot.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of thousands of people had gathered peacefully in the German capital for the annual Christopher Street Day celebrations, one of Europe’s largest LGBTQ events, before the apparent attack brought it to an abrupt end.<\/p>\n
A large number of emergency service vehicles were at the scene.<\/p>\n
“It’s one of the worst days for the queer community and a day I personally hoped I’d never have to experience … I’m shocked,” Julian Methig, who attended the event, said.<\/p>\n
Christopher Street Day draws hundreds of thousands of people to the German capital each year. The event commemorates the 1969 Stonewall uprising in New York and combines a parade with political demands for equality, inclusion and protection against discrimination.<\/p>\n
First held in West Berlin in 1979, the event has grown from a small demonstration into a major fixture of the city’s cultural and political calendar. The parade is the centrepiece but it is accompanied by a wide range of political, cultural and party events held across the city.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Many details remain unclear after apparent attackManhunt launched for member of the city’s “Islamist scene”Police describe white vehicle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-544182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}