Berlin Marathon 2020 cancelled due to COVID-19

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The Berlin Marathon will not take place this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the organisers have announced.

It's the first time the annual event has been cancelled since it was first run in 1974, reports Xinhua news agency.

The Marathon was scheduled to take place on September 26 and 27, but organizers revealed that finding an alternative date this year was not possible.

They added that all registered participants are able to either transfer their places to next year's event or apply for a refund.

The Berlin Senate approved social restrictions early in April to ban all major events with more than 5,000 people before October 24.

Earlier, the New York City Marathon, set to take place on November 1, was also cancelled due to health and safety concerns. American public health experts have said mass events, particularly those that bring people together from across the globe, will remain a danger until a treatment or a vaccine for COVID-19 is widely available.

The experts have also issued warnings about another wave of infections this autumn in the United States, with new cases rising across many states.