A van was driven into a crowd at Berlin's main Pride celebration late on Saturday, killing one person and injuring 16, German police said, as authorities launched a large-scale manhunt for a named suspect who fled the scene on foot.

The vehicle struck people in the city's central Tiergarten park at around 10pm local time, close to the route of the Christopher Street Day march, before crashing into a tree, police said. The driver got out and ran, prompting officers to clear the park and call off the event, which had drawn hundreds of thousands of people earlier in the day.

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Police initially reported that 17 people were struck; they later said one of them had died and 16 were injured, several of them critically. Officials said one or more people were believed to have left the vehicle after the impact, and that several people were also reported to have been hurt by stabbing weapons — an account police said they were still examining.

Investigators identified the suspect as a 21-year-old, whom they named as Abdul B., and released an image in a public appeal for his arrest. Police described him as armed and dangerous and urged members of the public not to approach him if they saw him. In their appeal, officers said the man was of slim build with black hair, and had been wearing a black hooded top and white trousers.

A police spokesperson, Florian Nath, said the suspect was already known to authorities and was believed to have ties to what he described as Islamic circles in the city. Police stressed, however, that they had no information on his specific motives, the exact sequence of events, or his precise role, and appealed to witnesses to share any footage from the scene.

German leaders condemned the attack. Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the celebration had been a peaceful gathering of people from around the world, and pledged the case would be pursued with the "utmost severity." Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner said he was shocked that a vibrant Pride parade had ended in violence.

Christopher Street Day is Berlin's annual Pride event, commemorating the 1969 Stonewall riots and combining a parade with demonstrations for LGBTQ+ rights. This year's parade wound through central Berlin to a closing rally near the Brandenburg Gate, where a concert was under way when the attack took place. The investigation was continuing on Sunday.