Berlin Pride Attack Suspect Killed in Police Operation
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A suspect has been shot and killed by police following an alleged "Islamist terror attack" at a Berlin Pride event on Saturday night – watch live above
Police say officers fired at him after he rushed towards them "with a knife", and he died at the scene
The prosecutor's office alleges that Abdul Ballout drove a van into a crowd and stabbed multiple people in an attack that left one woman dead and at least 29 injured
Ballout is a 21-year-old German citizen of Lebanese background who was known to police and had tried to join the Islamic State group
"We cannot rule out the possibility of copycat attacks," warns Germany's interior minister, as he announces that the country's threat level will be raised
Berlin should have woken up this morning with a massive hangover after a great party. Instead, it woke up to the sobering realisation of yet another deadly attack hitting the country, writes our reporter in Berlin
Edited by Imogen James and Craig Hoyle, with Michael Steininger reporting from Berlin
Timo Lehmann, a correspondent for German news website Der Spiegel, tells the BBC that there will be a "political discussion" over the next few days, surrounding "what went wrong and how it could happen".
He says the suspect was "clearly on watch by the police, and still they couldn't stop what happened yesterday".
As a reminder, Abdul Ballout had been convicted and given a prison sentence that he had not yet served. Officials said a year ago he had tried to join the Islamic State group.
On the area of Berlin where the suspect was killed by police, Lehmann says Spandau is "far away from the city centre".
"We don't know where this man tried to hide himself this last 24 hours, but it's very good news that they found him."
Timo Lehmann speaks to the BBC from Berlin's Brandenburg Gate
The flags at the Reichstag building, home of the German Bundestag, are flying at half-mast in Berlin after last night's attack at a Pride event.
Bundestag President Julia Klöckner says: "Anyone who attacks people standing up for freedom, equal rights, and diversity is attacking the very foundations of our democratic society and trampling on human dignity."
Jacob Phillips
Live reporter
A German journalist who witnessed the aftermath of Saturday's attack has described how people were left "crying and shaking".
Nico Nölken, who works as an entertainment reporter and covers queer issues for the newspaper Bild, was on the media float at the Pride event before the attack happened.
When he arrived at Tiergarten dozens of firefighters and paramedics were heading towards the scene, while others were helping to wheel some of the victims into ambulances.
"It was very quiet and very tense," he says. "There was no chaos. It was very orderly."
He tells me he spoke to one mother, who was in tears at the police tape as she had been unable to contact her daughter for hours.
“I have thought about that again and again," he says. "I really hope she found her daughter."
Berlin's mayor says police apprehending the suspect in less than 24 hours is a big success.
According to German media reports, Kai Wegner has shared that he is "very grateful" that the suspect has been caught.
Things have been moving fast, so here's a recap to bring you up to speed.
We can now bring you images from the scene in Spandau, a western borough of Berlin, where the suspect in last night's attack was shot and killed this evening.
The area is teeming with police, who have said they encountered the suspect in an allotment.
The police spokesman continues, saying the suspect "attacked our officers with a knife".
"We had to stop him, we did that with gunfire and he died as a result," he says.
Answering a follow-up question from a reporter, the officer adds that police encountered one suspect at the location in Spandau, and are "not currently looking for others".
Berlin police are now giving an update to reporters.
A spokesman confirms officers located the suspect in the leafy western borough of Spandau.
He was killed after being "shot by an officer", he adds.
Germany's murder commission authorities have been notified and will now be taking over the case.
More now from Berlin police.
They say the suspect was located in an allotment garden facility in Spandau, in the west of Berlin, at 18:00 local time (17:00 BST) today.
In the update, police say it's believed he "rushed toward our emergency forces with a stabbing weapon, after which police firearms were used by our SEK [Special Operations Command] Berlin".
"Despite immediate resuscitation measures initiated by the Berlin Fire Department, he died at the scene," a spokesperson says.
In a statement, Berlin's police department says the suspect in yesterday's attack died after police used their firearms against him.
We'll bring you more on this in our next post.
The suspect in the Berlin Pride attack has reportedly been shot and killed during a police operation at a garden complex, German media are reporting.
Reports say it occured in Spandau, a borough in the west of Berlin.
As we reported earlier, suspect Abdul Ballout had been convicted and given a prison sentence that he had not yet served.
Here's a timeline of the relevant background:
June 16 and 24, 2024: Ballout publishes prohibited Islamic State propaganda on Instagram. Later, the prosecutor's office says, he allegedly "developed the desire to join the armed struggle of ISIS".
20 May 2025: He travels to Lebanon via Turkey, with the intention of heading to Syria and joining the Islamic State group.
24 July 2025: He is arrested in Lebanon and sentenced to three months in prison for incitement to religious and sectarian conflict.
17 November 2025: Ballout returns to Germany after being released, and is arrested at Berlin Brandenburg Airport.
12 May 2026: The Tiergarten District Court sentences him to one year and 10 months' imprisonment for "preparing a serious act of violence endangering the state". The decision is deferred for six months.
3 July 2026: His address in Berlin-Schöneberg is searched based on suspicion of a violation of Germany's Weapons Act, but only a toy gun is found.
25 July 2026: Ballout allegedly seriously injures several people in a vehicle ramming attack in Berlin, and a number more "with a bladed weapon".
We can now bring you more on suspect Abdul Ballout, after the Berlin public prosecutor's office released details about his previous criminal history.
Ballout, a German citizen born and raised in Berlin, with a Lebanese family background, has had multiple run-ins with the law.
In February 2022, according to the release, he was convicted by juvenile court for assault and robbery after being found guilty of assaulting a victim in the yard of a Berlin high school in September 2019.
He was also convicted of robbing a victim of a pair of headphones in October 2020 at Innsbrucker Platz, with an accomplice.
The public prosecutor's office in Berlin has released a detailed update on Abdul Ballout, who police earlier named as a suspect.
The statement says it is alleged that Ballout struck people with a rented vehicle in the Tiergarten area last night.
It says one woman died later in the evening, after the suspect allegedly carried out the ramming attack, then injured several with a bladed weapon.
We're going through the statement, and will bring you more on the suspect in our next post.
A damaged van, believed to be the vehicle used in the attack, is removed from Berlin's Tiergarten park
Katie Williams
Live reporter
The manhunt continues following a suspected Islamist terror attack on Berlin Pride last night, in which one woman was killed and at least 29 people were injured.
At least one person is believed to have rammed a van into a crowd before launching a knife attack with "some type of blade" – possibly a machete.
Officials have named Abdul Ballout – a German citizen of Lebanese background – as a suspect, and multiple others were taken into custody on Sunday, according to German media.
Ballout was known to police and had previously "committed a number of crimes", says Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, who described the incident as a suspected "Islamist terror attack".
Photos show the police search in action throughout the day; more than a thousand officers have been working on the case.
There has been an outpouring of grief throughout Sunday, with crowds gathering for a vigil and laying floral tributes. One Pride attendee says the event "will never be the same after the attack".
Speaking to press earlier, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Germany would not allow the "poison of terrorism" to affect its society, and promised to "act decisively but also thoughtfully".
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is now visiting the scene of the attack in Berlin's Tiergarten park.
He holds a white rose, accompanied by other ministers, including Interior Minister Alexander Dobrint.
Earlier, he spoke outside a church service that paid tribute to victims, where he pledged to "defend the freedom and openness of our lives".
People injured in last night’s attack are no longer in a life-threatening condition, according to German media.
Outlets including the public service news programme Tagesschau, citing a police spokesperson, report that police have given the "all-clear" regarding those who were seriously injured.
AFP news agency also quotes German Chancellor Friedrich Merz as saying that none of those injured in the Berlin Pride attack are now "in mortal danger".
Earlier, a Berlin fire department spokesman said three people had suffered life-threatening injuries. Twenty-nine people were hurt, according to Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt.
Michael Steininger
The sign, translated, reads: "From grief, to anger, to resistance"
It is day one after what is now being described by Germany's interior minister as an "Islamist terrorist attack" on Berlin’s Pride parade last night.
The queer community, which had turned up in huge numbers yesterday, is reeling – and some of them returned to the Brandenburg Gate today for an impromptu demonstration.
The speakers did not hold back with their grief and their anger.
They condemned extremism in all its manifestations, but they also criticised the government for a lack of support, singling out recent budget cuts for queer organisations.
The addressee of that message happened to be right on the other side of the gate – Chancellor Friedrich Merz gave a statement in which he stressed that Germans would not be intimidated by acts of terrorism, and that they would defend their liberal and tolerant way of life.
German Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig says that the federal public prosecutor general will take over the investigation into Saturday night's attack.
"Of course, we will pursue those responsible with the full force of the law and bring them to justice," she says, adding that the interior minister "has already stated that this was an Islamist attack".
The federal prosecutor general is responsible for prosecutions in serious cases, including terrorism.
Police have taken several people into custody in relation to the attack, according to German media.
Citing police spokesman Florian Nath, outlets including Die Zeit report that some of those taken into custody have now been released, while others remain held.
Nath reportedly told journalists that if police cannot assign suspicions of a crime to those detained, then they must be released within 48 hours.
As we heard from police earlier, it's still unclear if the suspect named as Abdul Ballout is believed to have acted alone, or with accomplices.
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