Berlin Wall

Berliners released lamost 7,000 balloons into the night sky to mark the 25th anniversary since the fall of the wall that once divided the city.

The symbolic release of the balloons, many carrying messages of hope, recalled November 9, 1989, when thousands of people from the communist East streamed through the Berlin Wall to celebrate their freedom.

Speaking at the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin's mayor said the spectacular display celebrated "peace and freedom".

Thousands of people crowded into the streets of Berlin this evening for a number of concerts and displays as it marked 25 years since the fall of the Wall that divided the city during the Cold War.

Read: Chain of light divides Berlin along the former site of the Wall

The fall of the Berlin Wall 25 years ago today showed the world that "dreams can come true" and should inspire people trapped in tyranny everywhere, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said today.

Speaking at a memorial at the in Bernauer Strasses where roses were placed along the wall in tribute to those who died crossing it, she said:

Germans are celebrating 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall with series of commemorative events in the country's capital.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel laid flowers at a fragment of the wall which used to divide the city in two.

She said an irrepressible yearning for freedom brought the Berlin Wall tumbling down 25 years ago and called it a "miracle" that the Cold War barrier was breached without a shot being fired.

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev says tensions between the major powers have put the world "on the brink of a new Cold War".

He accuses the West, particularly the United States, of giving in to "triumphalism" after the collapse of the communist bloc a quarter of a century ago.

Gorbachev spoke at an event marking the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, close to the city's Brandenburg Gate.

Tensions between the major powers have put the world "on the brink of a new Cold War", former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has warned.

Speaking at an event to mark the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Gorbachev accused the West, particularly the United States, of giving in to "triumphalism" after the collapse of the communist bloc a quarter of a century ago.

He called for new trust to be built through dialogue with Moscow, and suggested the West should lift sanctions imposed against senior Russian officials over its actions in eastern Ukraine.