A makeshift memorial at Brandenburg gate after a deadly incident in which a vehicle crashed into a crowd near Berlin's annual Christopher Street Day Pride parade on Saturday evening, leaving multiple people injured and the parade called off, in Berlin, Germany, July 27, 2026. REUTERS/Annegret Hilse

Berlin Pride attacker recorded pledge of allegiance to IS, prosecutors say

· The Straits Times

BERLIN, July 28 - The man believed to be behind a deadly vehicle attack near Berlin's Pride celebration over the weekend left a video on his phone pledging allegiance to militant group Islamic State, German prosecutors said on Tuesday.

Though the person in the video was masked, authorities assume it shows the suspected attacker, 21-year-old German citizen Abdul Ballout, a spokesperson for the federal prosecutors' office said.

He would not specify when the video was recorded.

Ballout, who was shot dead by police on Sunday, is suspected of ploughing a vehicle into crowds in Tiergarten park near the Brandenburg Gate late on Saturday, killing a Polish woman in her 60s and injuring 29 people.

Germany's interior minister announced a security overhaul on Monday after the vehicle attack prompted an angry debate over why the suspected driver had been freed under supervision of a probation officer and was not in prison.

The suspect had been convicted and sentenced to jail time in May for preparing a serious act of violence endangering the state. REUTERS