1 killed, several injured at Berlin pride parade, after van drives into crowd

A ⁠suspected perpetrator ⁠of the apparent car attack on Pride celebrations in Berlin on ‌Saturday night had been identified as a member of the city’s “Islamist scene” but he had not ⁠yet been arrested, a ‌spokesman for Berlin police said on Sunday.

“We have ‌now identified a suspected ⁠perpetrator. ⁠Measures against this suspected perpetrator, ‌who has not yet been arrested, ‌are under way. ‌However, this suspected ‌perpetrator is known to the ⁠police as a member of ⁠the Islamist scene here in Berlin,” the spokesman ‌told ‌reporters at the scene.

A van slammed into people gathered for Berlin’s famed LGBTQ event on Saturday, killing one person, injuring at least 16 others and prompting police to call off the celebrations and a concert in the German capital hours after they had begun.

Police said some of the victims had life-threatening injuries. In a social media post, police called on everyone to leave the site of the event immediately as ambulances and firefighters attended to the victims.

According to police, a white van had driven into the Tiergarten park, which is next to the route that the pride march had passed along earlier, and hit several people before colliding with a tree.

Police could not say how many officers had been deployed to the scene but that it was “definitely a lot of police”.

“We are conducting an intensive search for possible suspects,” police officer Florian Nath said in a short video released on the Berlin police social media account.