A night built around pride and celebration turned to terror in central Berlin after a vehicle careered into crowds near Christopher Street Day festivities, killing one person and injuring 16 others, as police hunted a 21-year-old suspect believed to have ties to Islamist circles.
The violence ruptured one of Europe’s biggest Pride gatherings, sending revellers running from Tiergarten park as emergency sirens cut through a city that, only hours earlier, had been filled with music, flags and hundreds of thousands of people.
Police said the vehicle believed to have been used in the attack was later discovered abandoned a few hundred metres from the main festival area in Tiergarten park.
A major search operation is now unfolding across the capital, with helicopters in the air and officers from several German states joining the manhunt.
Police spokesperson Florian Nath said earlier that the suspect was believed to have links to “Islamist circles”.
Police and first aid responders at the scene in Berlin
The attack happened shortly before 10pm, local time, last night.
Police said a vehicle resembling a mini-van or SUV “entered the Tiergarten park and hit several people”.
One person was killed and 16 others were hurt, including three whose injuries were life-threatening, Berlin fire department spokesperson Dominik Pretz said.
About 30 additional people received treatment at the scene for shock.
Police described the suspect as slim, around 1.90 metres (6’3″) tall, with black hair, and wearing a black hoodie and white trousers.
Investigators said several victims were believed to have been injured with stabbing weapons, and witnesses reported seeing one or more people leave the vehicle after the incident.
The attack stirred painful memories in Germany, where a succession of vehicle rammings and assaults on public markets has intensified national arguments over policing, extremism and public safety.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz said those behind the latest incident would be brought to justice.
In a statement, Mr Merz called the incident a “horrific act” and said he and Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt were receiving regular updates on the investigation.
Berlin’s mayor Kai Wegner spoke to the media near the scene
Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner denounced what he described as a brutal assault on “a gathering for a tolerant and peaceful Berlin”.
More than 2,000 police officers had already been assigned to secure the event.
After the attack, reinforcements from across Germany were brought in to help with the search, while helicopters fitted with thermal-imaging cameras supported officers from above.
An AFP journalist at the scene saw a long line of emergency vehicles along a nearby road and a large tent set up as police searched the area.
Hundreds of thousands of people attended Christopher Street Day, an annual event that draws participants from across Europe.
The march finished beside the Brandenburg Gate, where concerts had been taking place since Friday.
Germany has endured a series of violent attacks in public places, including a stabbing in February 2025 at Berlin’s Holocaust memorial, near the site of yesterday’s incident, that left a Spanish tourist seriously wounded.
A Syrian man, identified only as Wassim Al M., was sentenced in March to 13 years in prison for that attack, after the court found he had acted in the name of the so-called Islamic State group.
In May, a German man drove a car at high speed along a street in the eastern city of Leipzig, killing two people and injuring six.
Last month, Taleb Jawad al-Abdulmohsen, a 51-year-old Saudi psychiatrist, received a life sentence for killing six people and injuring more than 300 when he drove a rented SUV through a crowded Christmas market in 2024 in the eastern city of Magdeburg.
Abdulmohsen was an anti-Islam activist, and his testimony during the trial was at times incoherent and filled with conspiracy theories and fringe far-right ideas.
The deadliest attack in recent years came in December 2016, when a truck was driven through a Berlin Christmas market, killing 12 people.
Yesterday’s incident took place two months before Berlin voters are due to choose a new state assembly.
Polls suggest Mr Merz’s centre-right CDU faces a serious challenge from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the far-left Linke parties.
Berlin mayor Mr Wegner said this month he would not seek re-election, following months of criticism over his handling of a major blackout in January that was apparently caused by sabotage.
