Merz vows justice after deadly car ramming near Berlin Gay Pride event / Photo: RALF HIRSCHBERGER - AFP
Merz vows justice after deadly car ramming near Berlin Gay Pride event
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz vowed Sunday to punish those responsible after a car struck people near of Berlin's Gay Pride celebrations, killing at least one person and wounding 16 others.
The incident forced organisers to cut short one of Europe's largest Pride events and comes as Germany remains on edge after a series of deadly vehicle and knife attacks in recent years.
"A vehicle entered the Tiergarten park and hit several people" just before 10:00 pm (2000 GMT) on Saturday, police posted on social media, triggering a major manhunt that was still under way early Sunday.
One person was killed and 16 others wounded, including three with life-threatening injuries, Berlin fire department spokesman Dominik Pretz said.
Around 30 more people were being treated at the scene for shock, he added. The incident took place several hundred metres from the centre of the event.
Police told AFP they later found the suspected vehicle abandoned in Tiergarten park and launched an extensive search involving helicopters equipped with thermal-imaging cameras.
However, no one had been found and the search had been widened to "the whole city", Police spokesman Florian Nath said.
The vehicle involved appeared to be "akin to a minivan or small SUV", he said.
Merz said in a statement early Sunday that he and Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt were being kept informed of the investigation into the "horrific act".
Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner condemned what he called a brutal attack on "a gathering for a tolerant and peaceful Berlin".
The Gay Pride event was cut short and police told participants to "go home, please" and sealed off the area where the people were injured.
An eyewitness by the main Pride stage at Brandenburg Gate said the crowd complied with the request and moved away from the park.
The programme at the main stage had been scheduled to continue until midnight.
An AFP journalist at the scene saw numerous emergency vehicles and a tent set up on the roadway, while police patrols moved through the vast park area.
Nath said officers from several German states were assisting Berlin police, which had already deployed more than 2,000 personnel to secure the event.
- Violent attacks -
Earlier Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people took part in the event, called Christopher Street Day in Germany, which is one of the biggest Pride events in Europe.
The march ended next to the Brandenburg Gate, which has been the venue for concerts since Friday.
Germany has in recent years seen several violent attacks at public spaces, including a stabbing in February 2025 at Berlin's Holocaust memorial, a stone's throw from the scene of Saturday's incident, in which a Spanish tourist was seriously injured.
A Syrian man named only as Wassim Al M. was jailed in March for 13 years for that attack, with the court finding he acted in the name of the so-called Islamic State group.
Last month Taleb Jawad al-Abdulmohsen, a 51-year-old Saudi psychiatrist, was sentenced to life in prison for killing six people and wounding more than 300.
He drove a rented SUV through a crowded Christmas market in 2024 in the easter city of Magedburg.
The deadliest such attack in recent years was a truck rampage at a Berlin Christmas market in December 2016 that killed 12 people.
Saturday's incident comes two months before voters in Berlin elect a new state assembly.
Polls indicate that the centre-right CDU, to which Merz and Wegner both belong, will face a stiff challenge from both the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the far-left Linke parties.
Wegner himself said earlier this month he would not run for re-election after months of criticism over his handling of a major blackout in January apparently caused by sabotage.
L.Amato--IM
