"What a heinous crime in Berlin," Friedrich Merz wrote on X on Sunday, hours after the vehicle rammed into pedestrians near the main event of the Christopher Street Day Parade in the Tiergarten park, killing one and leaving 16 injured.
Authorities have launched a manhunt in the German capital for the 21-year-old suspect, named only as Abdul B. under German privacy laws, amid conflicting accounts from witnesses over whether more perpetrators were involved.
The motive for the attack remains unclear, but police spokesman Florian Nath said the suspect was known to authorities and believed to be part of Berlin's Islamist scene. According to dpa information, he was released from youth detention in May 2026.
A wanted notice from the Berlin Public Prosecutor's Office and the State Criminal Police Office released early on Sunday included a photograph of the suspect.
According to police, a white van struck several people near the Pride event in the Tiergarten park around 10 pm on Saturday, prompting organisers to call off the celebrations.
Nath said the victim killed was a woman who suffered fatal injuries at the scene.
The vehicle crashed into a tree and the suspect fled.
Police also carried out several operations linked to the investigation, including a search of an apartment in the Berlin district of Schöneberg. No arrest was made because no one was found at the property, Nath said.
Investigators are examining whether there had been a second phase of the incident after the car struck people, including whether someone had left the vehicle and attacked people with a possible bladed weapon.
According to witness accounts, several people may have suffered stab wounds, while some said they had seen a man dressed in black carrying a machete.
Fire brigade spokesman Dominik Pretz said three of the 16 injured people suffered life-threatening injuries and eight were seriously injured, while five sustained minor injuries. Those with life-threatening and serious injuries were all taken to hospitals.
Hundreds of thousands of people had gathered in the German capital on Saturday to celebrate Berlin Pride, one of the largest events for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex and wider queer community in Europe.
The event is known as CSD in Germany, named after Christopher Street in New York, where the Stonewall Inn uprisings against police raids in 1969 sparked the global gay rights movement.
The parade wound its way through central Berlin with more than 80 floats before ending in the Tiergarten, with the main stage held outside the Brandenburg Gate. Organisers said the march was intended to send a message of democracy, tolerance and diversity.
More than 2200 police officers were deployed in Berlin since Saturday morning, some heavily armed, according to Nath.
A government spokesman said Merz was in close contact with Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt and was being kept continuously informed by the security authorities.
"Hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world celebrated peacefully at Christopher Street Day," Merz wrote on X. "They wanted us to treat one another with kindness and tolerance. That is an attack on our society."
"We are open and freedom-loving - and we will preserve and defend that," the chancellor continued. "The act will be investigated and pursued with the utmost severity. My thoughts are with the victims and their families. I wish the injured a swift recovery and thank all emergency responders."
Dobrindt said the "cowardly, despicable attack on people peacefully celebrating has shaken me to the core."
"My thoughts are with the victims, their families and everyone who had to witness this act," he added.
Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner described the incident as "an attack on our free and open society".
CSD organisers called off two events that had been scheduled for Sunday.
with dpa
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