A van ploughed into a crowd during a gay pride parade in Berlin on Saturday night, killing one person and injuring 16 others, some critically, the Fire Department said.
The incident took place on Christopher Street Day, the German capital’s annual pride event, on Lennestrasse near the Tiergarten park in central Berlin.
Firefighters and paramedics are treating victims as a manhunt for the suspect continues.
Police said the driver had fled the scene after the vehicle hit a tree and that helicopters had been deployed in the search. According to the Berliner Morgenpost, witnesses said the suspect was driving a white minivan, possibly a Citroën. Police later confirmed that the vehicle was a passenger van.
Organizers canceled the parade, which was set to resume on Sunday.
Police spokesman Florian Nath said investigators were examining whether the suspect attacked bystanders after leaving the vehicle, following witness reports that some people were lying on the ground with stab wounds.
Despite media reports that the assailant had been caught, Nath told reporters early on Sunday that no arrest had been made and that the suspect remained at large.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz has been briefed on the incident and is in close contact with Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, a government spokesperson said. “His thoughts are with the victims,” the spokesperson added.
“This is an attack on our free and open society,” Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner wrote on X. “After a peaceful and colorful pride parade, a gathering celebrating a tolerant and open Berlin was attacked in the most brutal way,” he added.
Germany has seen several vehicle attacks in recent years. The deadliest incident took place in 2016, when an Islamist and failed asylum seeker drove a truck through a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people and injuring more than 50.