Berlin Pride van and knife rampage an ‘Islamist terrorist attack’, say German authorities

The vehicle used in the attack on the parade was removed from the scene in the Tiergarten park on Sunday. Photograph: Annegret Hilse/Reuters View image in fullscreen The vehicle used in the attack on the parade was removed from the scene in the Tiergarten park on Sunday. Photograph: Annegret Hilse/Reuters Berlin Pride van and knife rampage an ‘Islamist terrorist attack’, say German authorities Hunt ongoing for main suspect, named as Abdul Ballout, 21, after fatal attack in Tiergarten park close to LGBTQ event A deadly van ramming and knife rampage near Berlin’s Pride festival was an Islamist terrorist attack, German authorities have said, with a hunt ongoing to find the main suspect. One person was killed and 29 were injured after a man drove a minivan into a crowd of pedestrians, then stabbed people with what appeared to be a machete. The attack took place in the Tiergarten park near the Brandenburg Gate at around 10pm local time on Saturday, close to one of Europe’s biggest LGBTQ celebrations. The German interior minister, Alexander Dobrindt, named the chief suspect as 21-year-old Abdul Ballout, and said Ballout was thought to have used a machete to attack people, leaving some victims with life-threatening injuries. “Everything we see here indicates that we are dealing with an Islamist terrorist attack,” Dobrindt said. “We are dealing ​here with ‌a suspected ‌perpetrator, who had previously drawn attention ‌to himself through a high volume of criminal offences, radicalisation and affiliation with the Islamist scene,” Dobrindt told ‌a press conference near the site of the attack. He said Ballout had a criminal conviction and had been sentenced to a year and 10 months in jail, but that the sentence had been suspended. map showing the location of the attack in the Tiergarten and the park’s location within Berlin city centre. German media reported that Ballout, a German national with Lebanese roots, was a supporter of Islamic State and last year travelled to the Middle East in a failed attempt to join the group. He was then convicted in Germany of “preparing a serious act of subversive violence”, the Bild and Spiegel newspapers reported. Police and prosecutors have asked for help in finding Ballout, but warned the public to avoid “direct contact” with him, saying he may be armed and dangerous. Police described Ballout as thin, about 1.90 metres (6ft 3in) tall with black hair, and dressed in a black hoodie and white trousers. View image in fullscreen Police officers work near the site where the vehicle was driven into the crowd. Photograph: Xinhua/Shutterstock Police searched an apartment in the Schöneberg district of Berlin in the early hours of Sunday, but said they had found no one there. The chancellor, Friedrich Merz, urged Germany to avoid division and intimidation in the wake of the attack. “We ​will think ​about ​consequences, we ​will ‌defend ​our freedom,” he said in a news conference. Earlier Merz vowed to punish those responsible, descri