Berlin police shoot dead chief suspect in deadly Islamist Pride attack / Photo: RALF HIRSCHBERGER - AFP
Berlin police shoot dead chief suspect in deadly Islamist Pride attack
German police said Sunday they had shot and killed the chief suspect in what officials described as a deadly Islamist attack near the Berlin Pride parade the previous night, the latest ramming assault to hit the country.
The attack late Saturday -- the first such incident to target the German capital's LGBTQ community -- killed one woman and wounded 29 others.
Berlin police said on X that they had traced the chief suspect, 21-year old Abdul Ballout, to an allotment complex in the western Spandau district at around 6:00 pm (1600 GMT) on Sunday.
Ballout "ran towards them with a bladed weapon", the police said, prompting officers to open fire, "injuring the suspect so that he died at the scene despite attempts to rescusitate him".
Earlier, prosecutors had said that Ballout, a German citizen of Lebanese origin, had been a supporter of the so-called Islamic State group (IS) with several criminal convictions, the latest dating from May.
Saturday's attack shattered what had been a day of celebration for hundreds of thousands attending Christopher Street Day (CSD), one of Europe's largest Pride events.
Politicians in Germany and elsewhere in Europe widely condemned the attack, while the flag at the German Bundestag was lowered to half mast.
Speaking before a memorial service for the victims at Berlin's Marienkirche church, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz appealed to those targeted by the attack to "not let yourselves be intimidated".
- Suspect's criminal past -
Shortly before 10:00 pm (2000 GMT) on Saturday a white minivan ran into people on the southern edge of central Berlin's Tiergarten park before crashing into a tree.
Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said Ballout was suspected of having then used a machete to attack more people.
Dobrindt said 29 people were injured, some seriously.
Merz said Sunday evening that none of the victims were any longer in a life-threatening condition.
The attack took place several hundred metres away from the end of the tightly guarded CSD parade route and the event's main stage at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate.
Dobrindt said Ballout had been known to the authorities for a "high number" of previous crimes and for being radicalised.
"Everything we see here indicates that this was an Islamist terror attack," he said.
Prosecutors said Ballout had previous convictions for bodily harm and extortion committed in 2019, and one for robbery in 2020.
They say that in 2024 he shared IS propaganda on Instagram and the following year travelled to Lebanon in order to fight for the militia in Syria.
He was arrested in Lebanon and sentenced to three months' prison.
On his return to Germany in November he was arrested and held until his conviction in May for "preparing a serious act of subversive violence".
But his sentence of one year and ten months in jail was suspended, partially in recognition of the time he had spent in jail in Lebanon and pre-trial detention, and partially because he had admitted to the crimes and distanced himself from IS.
- 'Won't beat us down' -
In a vigil on Sunday afternoon, hundreds of people packed the square in front of the Brandenburg Gate holding rainbow flags and flowers with more gathering nearby.
Luka, a 23-year-old student, told AFP she hoped the attack wouldn't be exploited by the surging anti-immigration far-right ahead of elections in the capital and in several regions in September.
At the scene of the attack itself people left flowers and hand-written messages of condolence and support.
Armin Duenhoelter, 49 from Wolfsburg, who works as a drag artist, was backstage at the main stage when the attack cut short the celebrations.
He told AFP early Sunday that he was still shocked but vowed to be back for next year's CSD.
"We won't let it beat us down," he said.
- Spate of attacks -
Saturday's attack revived memories of a string of similar incidents which have shaken Germany in recent years and inflamed debate on immigration, with several of the perpetrators being from outside Germany.
Martin Hess, a lawmaker from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), denounced the attack as a result of "a complete failure of the government's security policies".
The deadliest attack in recent years was a truck rampage at a Berlin Christmas market in December 2016 by a Tunisian man with jihadist motives that killed 13 people.
In 2024, a Saudi psychiatrist and anti-Islam activist killed six people and wounded more than 300 in a car-ramming at a busy Christmas market in the eastern city of Magdeburg.
A.Taylor--RTC
