Suspect in deadly Berlin Pride attack killed by police
A man suspected of a deadly terror attack on a major pride parade in Germany has been killed in a confrontation with police, authorities say.
Germany citizen Abdul Ballout is believed to have driven a van into the parade crowd before getting out and attacking parade-goers and bystanders with a weapon believed to be a machete.
Police officers stand near a vehicle crashed into a tree after driving into a crowd near Berlin’s annual Pride event. AP Photo/Markus Schreiber
One person was killed and 29 injured.
A warrant was issued for Ballout, but almost 24 hours after the attack, authorities said he had been killed in a confrontation with police.
On X, the Berlin police department said Ballout had been tracked to a garden colony in Spandau.
Police say Ballout attacked the deployed special forces operatives with a stabbing weapon, and they opened fire in return.
Ballout sustained fatal injuries and died at the scene.
Suspect allegedly had ties to Islamic extremism
Police had said earlier that they had identified a suspect who had ties to Islamic groups in the German capital.
Authorities issued a wanted notice and warned people against approaching Abdul Ballout. Berlin Police
Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said the suspect had come to authorities’ attention in the past because of numerous previous crimes, of which he didn’t give details, and also because of “radicalisation and belonging to the Islamist scene”.
He is believed to have sought to join the Islamic State terror group in the past.
Dobrindt said Ballout was born in Germany, and that his mother was naturalised in 2002 — three years before he was born.
Dobrindt said the suspect had been convicted in Berlin in the past, though he didn’t specify for what. He said that he had been given a suspended sentence of 1 year and 10 months.
Police conducted operations in the city as they searched for the suspect. Those included a search at an apartment in Berlin’s Schöneberg district in the early hours of Sunday, but police said they found no one there.
Berlin Pride one of Europe’s largest
According to police, a white van drove into the Tiergarten park about 10pm 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, following a parade with some 80 trucks that had made its way through downtown Berlin earlier in the day.
Emergency personnel and police gather in Berlin. AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi
Dobrindt noted that the crime scene was several hundred metres from the Pride festival itself, so the people affected would either have been in the Tiergarten park or on their way to or from the festival.
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 about 10.15pm and a band’s performance on stage was interrupted. People were urged to go home and to avoid taking the route through the park.
Earlier on Saturday, “Berlin celebrated a great day. Berlin was colourful. Berlin showed how diverse, how open this city is. It showed once again that Berlin is the city of freedom,” Mayor Kai Wegner said on Sunday. “After 10pm, it got dark. Very dark.”
One of the presenters at the Pride party, Ricarda Hofmann, wrote in an Instagram post that she had been there “not just as a moderator, but as part of a community that comes together to be visible. To celebrate love. To stand up for each other.”
She said the attack left her speechless. “What happened today has changed something in me,” she wrote.
Two people walk together past emergency vehicles in Berlin. AP Photo/Markus Schreiber
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.
The van, with its battered front resting against a tree, could still be seen at the scene Sunday morning.
Amsterdam will celebrate in wake of Berlin attack
Chancellor Friedrich Merz described what happened as “an attack on our society”.
“What an abhorrent act in Berlin,” Merz wrote in a post on X. He added that Germany loves freedom, “and we will preserve and defend that”.
Dobrindt said he expected security measures at other major events in Germany, including Pride events elsewhere, to be reviewed and if necessary significantly strengthened.
He pointed to concern about possible copycat crimes, adding that “this is not typical of such situations, but it also can’t be ruled out”.
In the neighbouring Netherlands, Amsterdam is hosting World Pride this week and next alongside its own annual Pride celebrations. Mayor Femke Halsema said authorities and organisers “are closely monitoring the security situation” after the Berlin attack.
She said security is always high for such events and extra measures will be added where necessary, “which visitors will hopefully notice as little as possible. Because we don’t want to be scared and we want to be able to celebrate freedom and being able to be who you are and love who you want to.”
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