Berlin ? Media scolded Michael Jackson on Wednesday for endangering his young son by dangling him over a fourth-floor balcony railing at a Berlin hotel, with outraged British tabloids demanding an investigation of the star.

After video images of the squirming baby in a blue jumper shocked viewers in Europe and the United States, the reclusive pop legend issued a statement saying he made a “terrible mistake” by holding Prince Michael II aloft from a window 60 feet off the ground.

“I got caught up in the excitement of the moment,” Jackson’s statement said. “I would never intentionally endanger the lives of my children.”

The boy’s face was draped with a white cloth, which German newspapers reported was a precaution to protect his children from being kidnapped.

Jackson also trotted out an older child ” head likewise covered with a towel ” to wave to the fans. He later threw a pillow out the window for fans to fight over, then gleefully strafed them with a yellow water gun.

British tabloids were especially critical of Jackson. The Sun called him “You lunatic” and the Daily Mirror, “Mad bad dad.” In New York, the Daily News front page called Jackson “Wacko!” while the New York Post proclaimed “Jacko goes over the edge.”

“The Berlin police should arrest this negligent father for reckless endangerment of his own child,” the Mirror’s show business editor, Kevin O’Sullivan, wrote.

Berlin prosecutors said they were not investigating the incident, although an inquiry could be opened if any complaint were filed against Jackson.

Pop star Michael Jackson and two of his children, Prince Michael, 5, and Paris, 4, tour the Berlin zoo along with an unidentified bodyguard, right. Jackson covered his children's faces with scarves to protect their identities.

Jackson had plenty of supporters and appeared unfazed by the trans-Atlantic flap Wednesday as he toured Berlin, taking two of his children, their faces covered with burgundy-colored scarves, to see gorillas at the Berlin Zoo.

At one point on the zoo tour, Jackson, protected by bodyguards, shielded his two children from photographers with a large, black umbrella.

He even dared to appear again at the same balcony window ” this time with two smiling German children waving next to him. Young Prince Michael II, however, was nowhere to be seen.

While fans and friends alike said they could not imagine ever holding a child over a railing from such a height, they seemed to agree Jackson meant no harm.

“He probably did it because he was overwhelmed emotionally by the fans,” spoon-bending psychic and Jackson friend Uri Geller said in London. “I think it was a silly thing to do.”

“It was rather bizarre, what he did,” said Joerg Diestel, 17, from Berlin. “But Michael’s a bizarre person.”

Jackson came to Berlin to receive a Bambi entertainment lifetime achievement award today, taking a break from California hearing on a lawsuit seeking damages for canceling two concerts.

On Wednesday night, the star attended a celebrity auction for homeless children, where a silver-studded jacket that he wore to receive the Artist of the Century title at last January’s American Music Awards was sold for $16,000 to German songwriter Ralph Siegel.

“I’m glad to be here,” Jackson told the gathering of several hundred invited guests after he was greeted outside the downtown Adagio club by a crowd of fans shouting “Michael!” He didn’t mention the flap over his son.

Also on offer was a hat Jackson wore in the “Smooth Criminal” video. The result of that auction wasn’t immediately announced.

The pop star departed Neverland, his California ranch, for Germany after testifying last week in a $21 million lawsuit by a promoter over canceled concerts. But Jackson’s rebuilt nose made news when he showed up in court with a bandaged schnoz that appeared to have partially collapsed.

A German newspaper ran a contest asking readers to design a new honker for the King of Pop.

“Perhaps they should have picked a new brain for him instead,” fan Jutta Schmidt told London’s Daily Mail.