ONE KILLED, DOZENS INJURED AS CAR SLAMS INTO CROWD AT BERLIN LGBTQ EVENT

Sun 26 July 2026:

Dozens were injured Saturday after a driver drove a car into a crowd at a parade in downtown Berlin, according to media reports.

Police announced several injured people were being treated at the scene at the Christopher Street Day Pride parade, but neither exact number nor information about their conditions was released.

The circumstances surrounding the incident are not known.

Organizers have ended the parade in the area as police and emergency services respond to the incident, which occurred at 10 pm local time (2000GMT).

The BILD newspaper cited witnesses who said a white van sped into the Tiergarten district where the parade was held at high speed.

The incident triggered a mass casualty alert at the emergency dispatch center. According to a fire department spokesperson, 44 emergency responders are currently on the scene.

A large police presence was deployed, and authorities asked people to leave the event area and follow instructions from emergency services.

According to initial police findings, a white car struck several people in the city’s central Tiergarten Park, near the route of the Pride march, before crashing into a tree, police spokesperson Florian Nath said.

In a post on X, police said at least 16 people were injured and some of the victims had life-threatening injuries. They called on everyone to leave the premises of the event immediately.

Police added that a vehicle was abandoned at the scene in the park – a wooded area of the capital where the parade ends – and they were “conducting an intensive search for suspects”.

Police officers illuminated the area between Potsdamer Platz and the southern side of the Tiergarten tunnel as they searched for evidence, a dpa reporter at the scene said. Meanwhile, emergency services treated the injured.

__________________________________________________________________________

https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaAtNxX8fewmiFmN7N22

__________________________________________________________________________

In the early hours of Sunday, police said they had “identified” but not yet arrested a suspect – a man known to authorities and believed to have links to “Islamic circles” in Berlin, Nath said.

“Our search for this person is proceeding at full speed,” the spokesperson said, without naming him.

Nath added that “we still have no information whatsoever regarding his specific motives, the exact sequence of events, or his role in the crime itself”.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz pledged on Sunday to punish the perpetrators.

In a statement, he said he and Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt would “push to make sure this horrific act is fully investigated and punished”.

Overall, more than 2,200 police officers have been on duty in Berlin since Saturday morning to protect the Pride parade and other LGBTQ events in the city.

Hundreds of thousands of people had come to the city to participate in the parade, known in Germany as Christopher Street Day. It is one of Europe’s largest LGBTQ celebrations.

The Pride event in front of the city’s iconic Brandenburg Gate in downtown was called off at about 10:15pm local time (20:15 GMT), and a band’s performance on stage was interrupted. People were urged to go home and avoid travelling through Tiergarten Park.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

__________________________________________________________________________

FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:

WhatsApp CHANNEL
https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaAtNxX8fewmiFmN7N22