Vehicle Strikes Berlin Pride Parade, Killing One and Injuring Seventeen

BERLIN: One person died and 17 were injured, some critically, after a vehicle drove into a crowd near Berlin’s Pride celebrations on Saturday evening, prompting a police manhunt for the driver.
Hours after the apparent attack many details remained unclear, but police said the vehicle struck multiple people after entering the city’s central Tiergarten park close to the Brandenburg Gate.
“According to our latest information, the vehicle drove … into the Tiergarten around 10 p.m. (2000 GMT), injuring several people in the process, before coming to a stop after hitting a tree in the park,” a police spokesperson at the scene said.
“It was empty, which is why we are currently working intensively to track down the perpetrator or perpetrators.”

<|reserved_token_163658|>> Eight seriously injured
Among the 17 injured, eight sustained serious injuries, three of whom are in life‑threatening condition, a fire brigade spokesperson said.
Police described the vehicle as white, possibly a car, minivan or minibus. Tabloid newspaper Bild quoted a witness who said it was a van and that a man emerged from it and fled on foot.
Hundreds of thousands of people had gathered peacefully in the German capital for the annual Christopher Street Day celebrations, one of Europe’s largest LGBTQ events, before the apparent attack brought it to an abrupt end.
A large number of emergency service vehicles were at the scene.
“It’s one of the worst days for the queer community and a day I personally hoped I’d never have to experience … I’m shocked,” said Julian Methig, who attended the event.
Christopher Street Day draws hundreds of thousands of people to the German capital each year. The event commemorates the 1969 Stonewall uprising in New York and combines a parade with political demands for equality, inclusion and protection against discrimination.

Series of car attacks
First held in West Berlin in 1979, the CSD has grown from a small demonstration into a major fixture of the city’s cultural and political calendar. The parade is the centerpiece of the CSD, but it is accompanied by a wide range of political, cultural and party events held across the city.
Germany has in recent years suffered a series of apparent attacks in which a vehicle has plowed into a crowd, causing deaths. In May, a man believed to have mental health issues drove his car into a central pedestrian zone of the eastern German city of Leipzig, killing two people and seriously injuring three.
Last year, two people were killed in the western city of Mannheim when a 40‑year‑old man whom authorities described as psychologically unwell drove a car into a group of pedestrians. Weeks before that, an Afghan national carried out a similar attack on a trade union demonstration in Munich, killing two and injuring more than 40, including many children.
In December 2024, several people were killed in a car‑ramming attack on a Christmas market in the eastern city of Magdeburg. The suspected perpetrator was a psychiatrist from Saudi Arabia with a history of anti‑Islamic rhetoric who had lived in Germany for almost two decades.

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