The Berlin Pride attack that struck Christopher Street Day in the German capital left one woman dead and at least 29 other people injured, according to officials, after a van was driven into a crowd near Tiergarten park on Saturday night. Police later said the suspect they had been searching for, 21-year-old Abdul Ballout, was shot and killed during a police operation in west Berlin.
Authorities said the incident happened around 22:00 local time, when a report reached police that a white vehicle had driven into people attending the Pride event. Officials also said some of those hurt were stabbed, and that the blade believed to have been used could have been a machete. Organisers cut a performance short and urged the crowd to move toward the exits, while the word evacuation appeared on a large screen above the stage.
Berlin Police confirmed around 01:00 that one woman had died and many others were injured. Shortly after that, officers said they had found the vehicle thought to have been used in the attack. It was believed to have crashed into a tree and was reportedly rented. By about 03:30, police said on X that they had identified a suspect with Islamist links, and the search expanded across the city with thousands of officers involved, including reinforcements from surrounding German states.
On Sunday, police were stationed outside an apartment block in Berlin’s Tiergarten district, which is said to have been Ballout’s home. Police later said he was shot and killed at an allotment complex in Spandau, in the west of the city, after he rushed at officers with a knife. They named him as a German citizen of Lebanese background and said he had been known to police and had been radicalised.
The Berlin public prosecutor’s office later released further details about his criminal record. Prosecutors said Ballout travelled through Turkey to Lebanon in May 2025 with the intention of joining the Islamic State group in Syria. While in Lebanon, he allegedly made contact with people he believed were members of IS. He was arrested there in July 2025 and sentenced to three months in prison for incitement to religious and sectarian conflict.
