Berlin police called off the annual Christopher Street Day Pride parade on Saturday evening after a car drove into crowds near Tiergarten park, injuring several people. Authorities launched an intensive manhunt for suspects as emergency services treated the wounded at the scene near the Brandenburg Gate.
Berlin Pride Parade Halted After Car Strikes Crowds Near Tiergarten Park
Hundreds of thousands of participants had gathered peacefully in the German capital on Saturday for one of Europe’s largest LGBTQ+ celebrations. The festive atmosphere dissolved late in the evening when a vehicle drove into the crowd near the city’s central Tiergarten park, close to the historic Brandenburg Gate. Earlier on Saturday, huge crowds took part in a parade throughout the city, which ended near the park for a series of events in the evening.
The incident forced officials to abruptly end the 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, interrupting a live band’s performance on stage and prompting urgent calls for attendees to go home and to avoid taking the route through Tiergarten park.
Intensive Manhunt Under Way as Police Urge Public to Avoid the Area
Berlin police deployed emergency services, a number of police officers, and rescue units from the fire department to treat the injured directly at the scene. While it is not yet clear how many people have been injured in the incident, and police did not say how many were injured, Berlin police confirmed that multiple individuals suffered injuries when the vehicle struck the crowd.
Law enforcement agencies turned to social media platform X to manage the unfolding emergency, instructing the public to leave the premises of the event immediately and steer clear of the park routes. Officers on the scene noted that they did not know how many officers had been deployed to the scene but that it was definitely a lot of police.
Berlin police called off the annual Pride parade in the German capital on Saturday, hours after the event had begun, saying it was because several people had been injured when a car drove into the crowd. Police said they were responding with emergency services to an incident in the city’s central Tiergarten park close to the Brandenburg Gate, where a vehicle had struck multiple people.
Search for Suspects and Emergency Response Efforts
Authorities initiated a sweeping manhunt across the city center immediately following the collision, with an intensive manhunt currently under way as police urged people to avoid the area. Police officials released a short video statement on the Berlin police account on X featuring a police officer who stated, We are conducting an intensive search for possible suspects,
alongside statements posted to the platform that We are searching intensively for suspects.
Images show a large emergency services presence at the scene, with one person seen entering an ambulance on a stretcher. The exact number and severity of injuries were not immediately clear as investigators work to establish the circumstances surrounding the vehicle’s entry into the park area, where police posted on social media: We believe that a vehicle entered the Tiergarten park and hit several people and injured them.
Christopher Street Day Celebrations Cut Short
The sudden halt brought a jarring conclusion to Christopher Street Day, known in Germany as Christopher Street Day, which is one of Europe’s largest 2SLGBTQ+ celebrations. The march traditionally draws immense crowds to Berlin, where hundreds of thousands of people had come on Saturday to celebrate at the city’s Pride parade before the incident ended the festivities.
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