A van has driven into a crowd during Berlin’s famed LGBTQ+ event, killing one person and injuring at least 15, prompting police to call off the celebrations and a concert 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.
In a post on X, police called on everyone to leave the site of the event immediately.
According to police, a white van had driven into the 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,” police officer Florian Nath said on a short video released on the Berlin police account on X.
Hundreds of thousands of people had come to celebrate at Berlin’s pride parade, known in Germany as Christopher Street Day. It’s one of Europe’s largest LGBTQ+ celebrations.
The pride event in front of the city's iconic Brandenburg Gate in the downtown, near Tiergarten, was called off around 10:15 pm (local time) and a band’s performance on stage was interrupted.
People were urged to go home and to avoid taking the route through the park.
Before the incident, people had celebrated peacefully, marching through the city for hours, dancing to loud music, and cheering the around 80 floats that participated in the parade.
SHARE ME