{"id":61499,"date":"2026-07-26T11:58:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T11:58:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/61499\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T11:58:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T11:58:23","slug":"german-police-launch-manhunt-as-one-killed-after-van-drives-into-crowd-at-berlin-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/61499\/","title":{"rendered":"German police launch manhunt as one killed after van drives into crowd at Berlin festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

One person died and at least 25 were injured, some critically, after a van drove into a crowd near a large public festival in central Berlin on Saturday evening, German<\/a> police said.<\/p>\n

Authorities launched a manhunt after the apparent attack, which took place in the city’s Tiergarten park near the Brandenburg Gate. Hours later, police said they had identified an Islamist extremist as a suspect and were seeking his arrest.<\/p>\n

“According to our latest information, the vehicle drove into the Tiergarten around 10pm, injuring several people in the process, and then came to a standstill after hitting a tree,” a police representative at the scene said.<\/p>\n

“The vehicle was empty, which is why we are currently working intensively to track down the perpetrator or perpetrators.”<\/p>\n

A fire brigade official said eight of the injured suffered serious wounds, including three whose lives were at risk.<\/p>\n

Police said the suspected perpetrator had not yet been arrested but was known to authorities as a member of the Islamist scene in Berlin.<\/p>\n

German tabloid Bild quoted a witness as saying a man got out of the van and fled on foot.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of thousands of people had gathered in the German capital for a major annual festival before the incident brought celebrations to an abrupt end.<\/p>\n

Large numbers of emergency personnel were sent to the area as investigators worked to establish the circumstances of the attack<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“This is one of the worst days for our community and a day I hoped I would never have to experience. I’m shocked,” Julian Miethig, a visitor, said.<\/p>\n

The festival is one of Berlin’s largest annual public events and regularly attracts hundreds of thousands of participants. It combines a parade with calls for equality, inclusion and protection against discrimination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One person died and at least 25 were injured, some critically, after a van drove into a crowd…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[18,4138,5,442,441,58],"class_list":["post-61499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-germany","tag-berlin","tag-foreign-desk-team","tag-germany","tag-standard","tag-story","tag-terrorism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}