A car drove into a crowd during Berlin’s famed LGBTQ+ 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 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. Police did not know 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.
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“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 Berlin’s pride parade, known in Germany as Christopher Street Day. It’s one of Europe’s largest LGBTQ+ celebrations.
The pride event in front of the city’s iconic Brandenburg Gate in downtown 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 Tiergarten park.
Before the incident, people had celebrated peacefully, marching through the city for hours, dancing to loud music, and cheering the around 80 floats that participated in the parade.