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One
killed and 15 injured after van crashes into crowd at Berlin Pride
Police
call off annual parade hours after it began as several people are struck by
vehicle in Tiergarten park
Deborah
Cole in Berlin
Sat 25
Jul 2026 23.44 BST
A van has
ploughed into a crowd at Berlin’s annual LGBTQ+ pride parade, killing at least
one person and injuring about 15, police said, leading them to call off the
event hours after it had begun to protect participants.
Police
said those hurt “included several with life-threatening injuries”. They called
on everyone to leave the event, one of Europe’s largest LGBTQ+ celebrations,
immediately, in a post on X.
The
driver of a white van had swerved shortly before 10pm into the Tiergarten park,
close to the route of the pride march earlier Saturday, and struck several
people on a walking path, police said.
Sirens
rang out across the city as authorities said they were looking for the alleged
assailant or assailants.
“We are
on the scene in the Tiergarten with a large number of police officers and
emergency services personnel from the Berlin fire brigade,” they said on X.
“It is
believed that a vehicle drove into the Tiergarten, striking and injuring
several people. The injured are currently being treated by the emergency
services. We are conducting an intensive search for the suspects.”
Emergency
services personnel set up a helicopter landing pad near the Reichstag
parliament building nearby to transport the injured to hospitals.
Organisers
of the parade and rally used social media to call on participants to evacuate
the site for their own safety. A message on their Instagram story read in
English and German: “Event cancelled” and “Please leave the venue calmly and
orderly.”
Participants
were advised to head in the direction of the central railway station and away
from the Tiergarten.
The
German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, vowed to punish the perpetrators. Merz said
in a statement that he and the interior minister, Alexander Dobrindt, would
“push to make sure this horrific act is fully investigated and punished”.
Hundreds
of thousands of people had gathered in the German capital in warm summer
sunshine to celebrate the pride parade.
It is
known in Germany as Christopher Street Day (CSD), named after the site of the
Stonewall Inn in New York City where riots against police raids touched off the
modern LGBTQ+ rights movement. CSD was first held in West Berlin in 1979.
Berlin
mayor, Kai Wegner, called the deadly assault “an attack on our free and
cosmopolitan society” and pledged security authorities would be investigating
“with the utmost urgency”.
“Following
a peaceful and colourful CSD, the rally for a tolerant and peaceful Berlin was
attacked in the most brutal manner,” he said on X. “Berlin is the city of
freedom – and our freedom has today been attacked in the most appalling way. My
thoughts are with the victims, their families and friends.”
For the
first time in its history, CSD began on Friday night this year with a
pro-democracy political rally. Berlin will hold a state election in September.
The
parade on Saturday ran under the motto “Taking a stand is hot” which organisers
said was “in response to increasing hostility” to queer people in Germany.
More than
80 floats and 50 groups on foot joined the procession through the city centre
past Potsdamer Platz and the Victory Column monument in the Tiergarten,
culminating in a rally at the Brandenburg Gate.
Earlier
in the day one person was arrested for resisting police orders at a far-right
counterprotest against the event.
Before
last year’s pride parade, Berlin LGBTQ+ organisations sounded the alarm that
attacks had become more frequent while hard-won rights were under threat.
Campaigners
said a rise in hostility has accompanied the surge in support for the far-right
Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party, now the most popular party in national
opinion polls, as well as an increase in Islamist-inspired attacks.
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