Berlin Pride attack suspect shot dead after one killed and 29 injured

Berlin,UPDATED: Jul 26, 2026 23:46 IST

A man suspected of carrying out the deadly attack near Berlin's Pride festival, in which one person was killed and 29 others were injured, was shot dead by police on Sunday during a confrontation in a suburb of the German capital, authorities said. Prosecutors said the suspect, Abdul Ballout, a German citizen with Lebanese roots, had previously sought to join the militant Islamic State group.

Authorities said Ballout was suspected of driving a van into a crowd near Saturday night's Pride celebrations in central Berlin and then apparently attacking others with a machete in what they believe was an Islamist extremist terror attack. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said the violence took place a few hundred metres from a party near the Brandenburg Gate that was due to close the city's Pride festival.

Berlin police said Ballout was found at around 6 pm on Sunday in a garden in Spandau after a search lasting nearly 24 hours. In a post on X, the police said he apparently ran towards officers with a sharp instrument, after which police fired at least one shot. He died at the scene.

Dobrindt said Ballout was born in Germany. He said the suspect's mother was naturalised in 2002, three years before he was born.

Prosecutors said Ballout had travelled to Lebanon in 2025 with the aim of going on to Syria to join the Islamic State group. They said he made contact there with several people believed to be members of the group, or at least people he believed to be members. He was arrested in Lebanon last year and sentenced by a military court to three months in prison for offences including incitement to religious and sectarian conflict.

After completing that sentence, Ballout returned to Germany, where he was arrested at Berlin airport. Prosecutors said a juvenile court in Berlin convicted him in May of preparing a serious act of violence endangering the state, publishing Islamic State propaganda on his Instagram account and other charges. The court gave him a suspended sentence of one year and 10 months in youth custody, a ruling that Berlin prosecutors appealed. The court said it had taken into account his months in pre-trial detention in Germany and Lebanon, his confession, his apparent distancing from the militant group and the fact that no actual threat had materialised. He was released from detention pending the appeal.

Police said a white van drove into Tiergarten park at around 10 pm on Saturday, hit several people and then crashed into a tree. The Christopher Street Day closing party was still under way nearby at the Brandenburg Gate after a parade of about 80 trucks through central Berlin earlier in the day. Police said the attack did not happen at the festival, on the parade route or at the closing party, but on a track in the park a few hundred metres away. The crowd that was hit was likely made up of festivalgoers as well as other local people and visitors. Police said a woman was killed.

On Sunday afternoon, hundreds of mourners gathered at a memorial at the Brandenburg Gate, laying flowers, candles, rainbow flags and handmade signs. One cardboard sign read: "The only thing more powerful than hate is love." Ashley Jump, a 26-year-old UK resident who had travelled to Berlin for Saturday's Pride parade but left before the attack, returned on Sunday to leave flowers in support of the LGBTQ+ community. "They'll never erase us, we'll never be gone," they said. "As long as humanity has existed, we've existed. And as long as humanity exists, we will exist. We will not be removed."

Hundreds of thousands of people had come to Berlin to celebrate on Saturday, though it was not clear how many were still at the festival late in the evening. It is one of Europe's biggest LGBTQ+ events. "We are simply stunned by what happened," said Andre Lehmann, a senior official with the national LGBTQ+ association LSVD+. "This suspected attack hits the heart of the queer community."

Chancellor Friedrich Merz urged people across Germany to remain united. "I would like to say this to Christopher Street Day participants here in Berlin but also across Germany: Don't let yourselves, let us not let ourselves, be intimidated," he said. "These acts have only one purpose: They aim to divide our society. They want to take away from us the most important thing we have: namely, our openness and our freedom." Dobrindt said security arrangements at other major events in Germany, including Pride events elsewhere, would be reviewed and, if needed, strengthened significantly.

Berlin has faced Islamist extremist attacks before. In December 2016, a rejected asylum seeker from Tunisia drove a hijacked truck into a Christmas market, killing 13 people and injuring dozens more, before being shot dead days later in Italy. In February last year, a Spanish tourist was stabbed and seriously wounded at Berlin's Holocaust Memorial; a Syrian man was convicted in March and sentenced to 13 years in prison.

Amsterdam, which is due to host World Pride this week alongside its annual Pride celebrations, said it was watching developments closely after the Berlin attack. Mayor Femke Halsema said authorities and organisers "are closely monitoring the security situation", but wanted to ensure that any additional steps did not get in the way of celebrating freedom and love. The attack near Berlin's Pride festival has left Germany mourning, prompted renewed security reviews and raised fresh concern ahead of other major Pride events in Europe.

With PTI Inputs

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