Berlin police say a vehicle reportedly charged into a group of people near the city’s Pride celebrations on Saturday evening, leaving several injured and triggering a search for possible perpetrators.
According to a police post on the social media platform X, officers and emergency services responded to an incident in Tiergarten park close to the Brandenburg Gate where a vehicle had struck multiple people. Authorities stated they were conducting an intensive search for suspects. "We are searching intensively for suspects," police said.
Hundreds of thousands of people had gathered peacefully in the German capital for the annual Christopher Street Day celebrations, one of Europe’s largest Pride events, before the incident brought the festivities to an end.
Emergency personnel remained at the scene treating the injured, the police said. Officials did not provide immediate details on the number of people hurt or the severity of their injuries.
Tabloid newspaper Bild cited a witness who described a white van allegedly driving into the crowd at high speed. The witness told the paper that a man exited the vehicle and then fled on foot. Police and emergency vehicles were reported to be present in large numbers at the location.
The situation prompted an immediate response from on-site emergency teams and law enforcement, who established operations in the area and began searching for those involved. At the time of the report, authorities were still gathering information about the circumstances surrounding the incident and the condition of those injured.
Organisers and attendees who had taken part in Christopher Street Day had been celebrating the event when the incident occurred, and the arrival of emergency services marked the abrupt end of what had been described as a large, peaceful gathering prior to the vehicle striking multiple people.
Police appealed for information from anyone who might have witnessed the incident, and their public statement emphasized the ongoing search for suspects involved in the incident.