Europe26 July, 20262 min read
Berlin Police Shot Dead Suspect After Van Attack Killed One at Pride Festival
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A van rammed into Berlin Pride crowds, killing one and injuring dozens. Abdul Ballout, 21, identified as the attacker and Islamist extremist.
Berlin Pride Attack
A suspect drove a van into a crowd at a park near Berlin’s Pride festival on Saturday, killing one person and injuring dozens, before fleeing the scene. Authorities said the suspect was shot and killed by police during a confrontation on Sunday in a suburb of the city, after a search that lasted nearly 24 hours. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said the attack occurred a few hundred meters from a party near the Brandenburg Gate that was supposed to close out the city’s Pride festival.
Police said the closing party at the Pride festival, known as Christopher Street Day, was ongoing next to the Brandenburg Gate when the violence took place nearby on a track in the Tiergarten park. Andre Lehmann of LSVD+ said, “This suspected attack hits the heart of the queer community.”
Manhunt and Statements
Prosecutors said the suspect, Abdul Ballout, a German citizen with Lebanese roots, had previously sought to join the militant Islamic State group, and Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt described the attack as an Islamist attack.
Ballout was tracked down around 6 p.m. Sunday at a garden in Spandau, a Berlin suburb, and police said he apparently ran toward officers with a sharp instrument and police fired at least one shot.
Dobrindt said, “Everything we see here points to us dealing with an Islamic terror attack,” and the Associated Press reported that prosecutors said Ballout had previously sought to join the militant Islamic State group.
After the attack, Ashley Jump, a 26-year-old U.K. resident, returned to leave flowers at a memorial near the crime scene, saying, “They’ll never erase us, we’ll never be gone.”
Aftermath and What’s Next
Berlin’s Pride festival is described as one of Europe’s largest LGBTQ+ celebrations, and the attack did not occur at the festival, along its route, or at the closing party near the Brandenburg Gate. Police said the van drove into the Tiergarten park around 10 p.m. and hit several people before colliding with a tree, and the Pride event next to the Brandenburg Gate was called off around 10:15 p.m. with people urged to go home and avoid taking the route through the park.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz urged the nation to remain united in the aftermath of the attack, and he condemned it as a “heinous act” and an attack on German society. The Times of Israel reported that Ballout was shot dead by police after a daylong search, and it also reported that Dobrindt said the suspect had come to authorities’ attention because of “radicalization and belonging to the Islamist scene” in Berlin.