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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.
In a post on social media platform X, police called on everyone to leave the premises of the event immediately. According to police, a car had driven into the Tiergarten park, near the route of the Pride march, hitting several people. 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.
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.
People are seen near Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate after Christopher Street Day celebrations were cancelled on Saturday night. (Fabian Sommer/DPA/The Associated Press)
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.
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.
