BERLIN—A van slammed into people gathered for an LGBT event in Berlin on Saturday night, killing one person, injuring at least 16 others, and prompting police to call off the event and a concert in the German capital hours after they had begun.
Berlin police said they have identified a suspect who has not been arrested and he has ties to Islamic extremists in the German capital.
“The suspect is known to police. He is known to us as a member of Islamic circles here in Berlin, and our search for this person is proceeding at full speed,” said police spokesman Florian Nath. He did not identify the suspect by name.
Earlier, police said some of the victims had life-threatening injuries. In a post on X, police called on everyone to leave the site of the event immediately as ambulances and firefighters attended to the victims.
White Van Hit People in Tiergarten Park
According to police, a white van had driven into the Tiergarten park around 10 p.m., which is next to 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.”Overall, more than 2,200 police officers have been on duty in Berlin since Saturday morning.
Police were conducting witness interrogations at the park during the night and were investigating accounts that in addition to the crash some victims appeared to have suffered stab wounds—but said that it was too early to draw any conclusion from those accounts.
Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner expressed shock.
“This is an attack on our free and cosmopolitan society,” Wegner said. “I have confidence in the police and security authorities, who will be working around the clock to investigate.”
Meanwhile, authorities called on possible witnesses to come forward and share with police any video or photos they might have taken at the scene of the attack.
The city also activated a crisis hotline for people missing friends or family members.
Hundreds of thousands of people had come to Berlin on Saturday for the pride parade, known in Germany as Christopher Street Day. It’s one of Europe’s largest LGBT events.
The event in front of the city’s Brandenburg Gate, near Tiergarten, was called off around 10:15 p.m. and a band’s performance on stage was interrupted. People were urged to go home and to avoid taking the route through the park.