Suspect in Berlin Pride attack shot and killed - police

The chief suspect in a deadly attack near Berlin's Pride parade has been shot dead, police said this evening.

Officers located the suspect, previously named as 21-year-old Abdul Ballout, at around 6pm local time, Berlin police said in a statement on social media.

"Around 6 p.m. (1600 GMT), the suspect involved in yesterday's attack in Tiergarten was located at an allotment garden complex in Spandau," Berlin police wrote on X.

"According to initial findings, he ran towards officers while armed with a bladed weapon; police... subsequently opened fire. Despite immediate ‌resuscitation efforts by the Berlin Fire Department, he died at the scene."

A federal prosecutors spokesperson confirmed one person had been shot and declared dead.

German Interior ‌Minister Alexander Dobrindt told broadcaster ⁠ZDF that a shot was fired and a person died.

The attack happened in the Tiergarten park near the Brandenburg Gate at about 10pm local time yesterday, not far from one of Europe's biggest annual LGBTQ celebrations, Christopher Street ‌Day.

One person was killed and 29 were injured, authorities said.

The suspect had "attracted attention ‌in the past through ahigh number of criminal offences, through radicalisation, through membership ⁠of the ‌Islamist scene", Mr Dobrindt said earlier, adding that he was a German citizen of Lebanese heritage, born in Germany in 2005.

It was the latest in a series of vehicle attacks on crowds in Germany in ⁠recent years that have intensified debate around security and immigration amid a surge in support for ⁠the far-right.

Ahead of a memorial service at St Mary's Church in Berlin, centre-right Chancellor Friedrich Merz urged Germans to protect liberal values.

"We will defend the freedom, openness, and liberal spirit of our lives and our society with everything we can do," he said.

None of the people injured are at risk of succumbing to their injuries, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said.

"My thoughts are with the woman who died and her family as well as those injured in Berlin's hospitals, from whom we thankfully hear that no one is at risk of death any more," Mr Merz said while addressing a memorial service for the victims.

Suspect was a known Islamist, police say

Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner, standing next to Mr Dobrindt, said the incident was "probably an Islamist terrorist attack on our ‌way of living alongside one another, on our liberal ⁠democracy, our openness and our freedom".

Security sources told Reuters the suspect had been released from juvenile detention only two months ago.

They said he was known to domestic intelligence and was among the hundreds ‌of people classed as potentially dangerous, a label that usually leads to scrutiny or monitoring.

After mowing people down with the vehicle, the attacker injured some with a bladed weapon, thought to have been a machete, Mr Dobrindt said.

The fire service said overnight ⁠that three of the injured were in a life-threatening condition.

It was unclear whether the perpetrator had acted alone, since police said more than one person may ‌have got out of the van. The Berlin broadcaster RBB said an Iranian who had been a passenger in the vehicle ⁠had been arrested.

Reuters TV ‌footage from the scene this morning showed a white minivan crumpled into a tree.

The mass-circulation newspaper Bild said it was a delivery vehicle that Abdul B had rented. German media reported that police had searched the suspect's Berlin apartment.

Merz government under pressure before elections

The attack comes at a sensitive time for conservative chancellor Friedrich Merz's unpopular coalition government, which is going through a bruising cabinet ⁠reshuffle as critics accuse it of being ineffective.

Read more: Grief, anger among Berlin LGBTQ community after attack

State elections take place in two months, with the far-right opposition party Alternative for Germany (AfD) campaigning on issues including immigration and security in ⁠a bid to secure control of a regional government for the first time.

The AfD was quick to comment on the attack.

"We will not allow religious extremists to divide our country with violence and intolerance!" AfD co-chief Tino Chrupalla said on X.

Germany has experienced a series of vehicle attacks on crowds in recent years.

In May, a man believed to have mental health issues drove into a pedestrian zone in Leipzig, killing two people and seriously injuring three.

In 2016, Anis Amri, a Tunisian failed asylum seeker with links to Islamist militants, hijacked a truck, killed its driver and drove it into a busy Christmas market, killing 11 people and injuring dozens. He was ‌shot dead by police in Italy four days later.