Berlin police say 1 killed, several injured after car drove into crowd near Pride parade

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.

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.

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.