10
Loading video...
By Brendan Cole
Senior Reporter
0
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
Police in Germany say Abdul Ballout, the suspect in a deadly attack near Berlin's Pride festival, was shot and killed by officers Sunday after a nearly 24-hour manhunt.
Authorities said Ballout, a German citizen with Lebanese roots, was found in Berlin's Spandau district around 6 p.m. local time. According to Berlin police, he allegedly ran toward officers with a sharp instrument and was fatally shot at the scene.
Officials believe Ballout drove a van into people near the festival's closing celebrations Saturday night before allegedly attacking others with a machete in what Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt described as an Islamic extremist terror attack. The attack left one person dead and 29 others injured.
Read More on World
Prosecutors said Ballout had previously attempted to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State group and was convicted in May on charges including preparing a serious act of violence endangering the state and disseminating Islamic State propaganda. He received a suspended sentence of one year and 10 months in youth custody, a decision that prosecutors appealed.
Before Ballout was located on Sunday, police had warned that the suspect was known to law enforcement and could be armed and dangerous.
Newsweek has contacted Berlin police for further comment.
...
Saturday's Attack Fits Growing Pattern of Vehicle Rammings
Hundreds of thousands of people had come to the German capital on Saturday for one of Europe's largest LGBTQ+ celebrations. The Pride event next to the Brandenburg Gate was called off around 10:15 p.m. after the attack where people were urged to go home and avoid going through the park.
On Sunday afternoon, hundreds of mourners gathered at a memorial at the iconic gate where they laid down flowers, candles, rainbow flags and homemade signs.
Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner said the incident was "a violation of our free and cosmopolitan society."
"Berlin is the city of freedom—and our freedom has been terribly attacked today," Wegner said, according to Bild.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz posted on X: "What an abhorrent act in Berlin."
Saturday night's incident is the latest involving cars being driven into crowds in Germany over recent years.
On May 4, two people were killed and 22 injured in Leipzig after which a 33-year-old German citizen was arrested.
On March 3, 2025, a car drove into a pedestrian area in Mannheim killing an 83-year-old woman and a 54-year-old man and seriously injuring five others. The driver was identified by investigators as Alexander Scheuermann, a 40‑year‑old German citizen.
On February 13, 2025, at least 30 people were injured, some seriously, when a car was driven into a crowd in Munich by a driver identified as a 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker named in local media as Farhad N.
In June, Taleb Al-Abdulmohsen from Saudi Arabia was jailed for life for an attack in which he drove a car up to 30 miles an hour in a Christmas market in Magdeburg on December 20, 2024, killing six people.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Daniel Orton and Tony Phillips
Related Story
Pedestrians Killed, Dozens Injured as Vehicle Plows Into Crowd in Germany
...
View 0 Comments
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines