A Lebanese-German ISIS-linked attacker who drove a vehicle into a Pride parade, killing one person and injuring 29 others, has been shot dead.
Abdul Ballout, 21, rammed a van into crowds gathered for Berlin’s annual Christopher Street Day Pride parade on Saturday.
German media reported on Sunday that Ballout was killed during a police operation at a garden complex.
Authorities had earlier launched a major manhunt for the attacker, who had previously attempted to join the Islamic State group.
Police sources cited by German outlets said Abdul B, a German citizen, travelled to Lebanon in 2025 in a failed bid to join Islamic State (IS).
He remained in pre-trial detention until May 2026 and was subsequently ordered to participate in a de-radicalisation programme.
Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said in an update this afternoon that the number of injured had increased from 16 to 29, with three people suffering life-threatening wounds.
Dobrindt said that ‘everything we are seeing here indicates that we have experienced an Islamist attack’.
Abdul Ballout has been shot and killed, according to German media
The Citroen Spacetourer used in the attack in Tiergarten park is removed from the crash scene by police
Police form a perimeter around the vehicle which crashed into a crowd near Berlin’s annual Christopher Street Day Pride parade on Saturday
Berliners gather at Brandenburg Gate after a deadly incident in which a vehicle crashed into a crowd celebrating Pride
Mr Dobrindt said the suspect ‘rammed into a crowd with a car’ and ‘then attacked the crowd with some type of blade, it might have been a machete, and also severely injured those people’.
The minister said: ‘We cannot rule out the possibility that further terrorist attacks might take place.’
Mr Dobrindt added that Abdul B was born in Germany in 2005 and has a Lebanese background. His mother became a naturalised German citizen in 2002.
This May, he was convicted in Germany of ‘preparing a serious act of subversive violence,’ the papers report, but according to Spiegel news magazine, Abdul B received a suspended sentence.
According to Bild newspaper, he was arrested in Lebanon while attempting to join IS and sent back to Germany as he is a German citizen.
Spiegel reported that a few weeks ago there was a tip-off that Abdul B had posted a photo online posing with a weapon.
However, a search of his apartment turned up only a toy replica. Police had been deployed to the suspect’s alleged address, around one kilometre south of the scene of the attack.
Berlin’s mayor, Kai Wegner, said: ‘This was an attack on all of us. It was an attack on our way of life and coexistence… and our way of life. Ladies and gentlemen, this must end. We must be very clear about this.’
People mourn together in front of a rainbow flag as they gather on July 26, 2026, at the Brandenburg Gate
A woman wipes away tears as she attends the memorial site commemorating the victims near the scene where a car rammed into a crowd
Police and prosecutors said the suspect is believed to have injured several people with a moving vehicle before one or more people left the van.
Several people were also apparently stabbed, they added.
Earlier, Berlin’s fire department spokesperson Dominik Pretz told reporters that, among the people injured in the attack, three have life-threatening injuries.
Providing a breakdown, Pretz said eight people have been seriously injured and five have minor injuries.
Germany’s largest hospital, the Charite, said it treated eight people injured in the attack. Four have since been discharged, while the remaining four are being cared for in intensive care.
The hospital said none are in a critical condition.
This is a breaking news story, more to come.
