The man suspected of driving a van into a crowd at Berlin’s Christopher Street Day parade has been shot dead by police after a citywide manhunt, bringing an end to a night of terror that left one woman dead and at least 29 people injured.
Abdul Ballout, 21, a German citizen of Lebanese background, was tracked down to an allotment garden in Spandau, west Berlin, on Sunday evening. Police said he rushed at officers with a stabbing weapon, prompting them to open fire. “Despite immediate resuscitation measures, he died at the scene,” Berlin police said.
“Suspect Abdul Ballout, 21, shot dead by police after van ramming at Berlin Pride leaves one dead and 29 injured.”
Ballout had been identified as the prime suspect after a white van ploughed into a crowd in Tiergarten park near the Brandenburg Gate at about 10pm on Saturday, during the city’s annual Pride festival. Hundreds of thousands had gathered for the event, which was abruptly cancelled as organisers projected the word “evacuation” onto a stage screen. Unverified video showed crowds fleeing as emergency vehicles raced to the scene.
Officials said some people were also stabbed with a blade believed to be a machete. The vehicle later crashed into a tree and was found abandoned. Police issued a wanted notice for Ballout, warning he was “armed and dangerous”. He was already known to police and had been radicalised, with Berlin’s interior senator Iris Spranger confirming he was “part of Berlin’s Islamist scene”. Interior minister Alexander Dobrindt said: “Everything we see here points to us dealing with an Islamic terror attack.”
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz condemned the attack as “a heinous act” and “an attack on our society”, vowing it would be “investigated and pursued with the utmost severity”. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote: “Hate and violence have no place in our societies. We stand united at the side of the LGBTQI+ community.”
Among those paying tribute was Briton Ashley Jump, 26, who attended the parade but left before the attack. Returning to leave flowers, they said: “They’ll never erase us, we’ll never be gone. As long as humanity has existed, we’ve existed. We will not be removed.”
Police said a second person may have been involved, with “one or more individuals believed to have fled the vehicle”. The search for them continues. Berlin has been here before: in 2016, an Islamist terrorist drove a truck into a Christmas market, killing 13. Now, the city confronts its deadliest extremism since that attack.
