Berlin: The suspect in the deadly Berlin Pride attack that left one person dead and 29 injured was shot and killed by police during a confrontation on Sunday in a suburb of the city, authorities said.
Abdul Ballout, a German citizen with Lebanese roots, was killed following a search that lasted nearly 24 hours after the attack in downtown Berlin. Berlin prosecutors said the suspect had previously sought to join the militant Islamic State group.
Ballout llegedly drove a van into a crowd near Berlin's Pride festival, killing one person and wounding many more, before apparently stabbing others with a machete in what authorities believe was an Islamic extremist terror attack.
“Everything we see here points to us dealing with an Islamic terror attack,” Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said. Dobrindt put the total number of injured at 29.
How the attack unfolded
According to police, a white van drove into the Tiergarten park around 10 p.m. on Saturday and hit several people before colliding with a tree. The closing party at the Pride festival, known as Christopher Street Day, was ongoing at the time next to the Brandenburg Gate, a short distance away. The party followed a parade with some 80 trucks that had made their way through downtown Berlin earlier in the day.
The attack did not occur at the festival, along its route or at the closing party. Rather, the violence took place a few hundred meters (yards) away on a track in the Tiergarten park. The van drove into a crowd that was likely a mix of festivalgoers and other locals or visitors.
Police said a woman was killed. Berlin's fire service said that three people sustained life-threatening injuries and another eight were seriously injured.
The Pride event next to the Brandenburg Gate was called off around 10:15 p.m., and a band's performance on stage was interrupted. People were urged to go home and to avoid taking the route through the park.
Hundreds of thousands of people had come to Berlin to celebrate on Saturday, though it's unclear how many were still at the festival by late evening. It's one of Europe's largest LGBTQ+ celebrations.
German chancellor urges nation to avoid division and intimidation after fatal Berlin Pride attack
Chancellor Friedrich Merz urged Germany to avoid division and intimidation in the wake of Saturday's fatal Berlin Pride attack.
“I would like to say this to Christopher Street Day participants here in Berlin but also across Germany: Don't let yourselves, let us not let ourselves, be intimidated," he said. "These acts have only one purpose: They aim to divide our society. They want to take away from us the most important thing we have: namely, our openness and our freedom".
(With inputs from AP via PTI)
