The police on Sunday evening shot and killed the man suspected of killing a woman and injuring 29 other people near a Berlin gay Pride celebration after he charged at officers with a weapon, the German authorities said.<\/p>\n
The man, a 21-year-old German citizen whose family members migrated from Lebanon, had been the subject of a protracted nationwide manhunt since the Saturday evening attack. The suspect used a rented van and what appeared to be a machete in the attack, which German officials called an act of Islamist terrorism.<\/p>\n
In a brief statement, the police said they had tracked the suspect to an area in a western corner of the city where residents maintain large garden patches. After officers shot him, emergency responders tried to revive him, but he died at the scene, the police said.<\/p>\n
The authorities said that their investigation into the attack was continuing, even after the death of the target of their manhunt, and that they had been looking for additional suspects.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is one other person under consideration, though nothing has been substantiated so far \u2014 nor has that line of inquiry been closed,\u201d Alexander Dobrint, the federal interior minister, said in a televised interview on Sunday evening with the public broadcaster ARD. \u201cFurther measures are being taken, but we do not currently believe there is any further threat.\u201d<\/p>\n
From the time of the attack late on Saturday night, in the city\u2019s central Tiergarten park, the authorities had scoured Berlin, along with the nation\u2019s rail stations, airports and border crossings. They were searching for a man the police had identified only as Abdul B., in keeping with German privacy laws.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese criminals, these extremists, have no place in the middle of our society,\u201d Mr. Merz said on Sunday afternoon before entering a memorial service at St. Mary\u2019s Church in central Berlin. \u201cAnd we will not allow this poison of terrorism and this poison against our freedom to spread further.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kai Wegner, the mayor of Berlin, told reporters at a news conference on Sunday afternoon near the site of the attack that \u201cwe are presumably looking at an Islamist terror attack directed at our way of life, our liberal democracy, our openness and our freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Dobrindt echoed that assessment, saying the attack was most likely Islamist terrorism.<\/p>\n
He said the suspect had a history of radicalization and a criminal record, including a conviction, for a crime authorities did not detail, for which he had recently received a suspended sentence that prosecutors had appealed. In his evening interview, Mr. Dobrint confirmed news reports that the suspect had been undergoing a court-ordered \u201cde-radicalization\u201d course.<\/p>\n
The manhunt ended around 6 p.m. in the western Berlin neighborhood of Spandau, in a cluster of garden plots where the suspect had apparently fled.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe suspect approached our police force with a stabbing weapon,\u201d Florian Nath, a spokesman for Berlin\u2019s police, said in a brief video posted to social media on Sunday evening. \u201cThis triggered a response. Our police force used its firearms. The suspect suffered severe injuries. Emergency doctors were able to revive the suspect for a brief time. The suspect died moments later.\u201d<\/p>\n
The police first said early Sunday that they were searching for \u201cat least one suspect\u201d after the attack on the periphery of the annual Christopher Street Day parade, which drew hundreds of thousands of revelers to the city center on Saturday. The festivities included a concert on Saturday evening near the Brandenburg Gate and the Tiergarten.<\/p>\n
Shortly after 10 p.m., the authorities said, a white minivan sped through a side street leading out of the park, outside of the official festival grounds and security complex, striking pedestrians on a sidewalk and eventually crashing into a tree. The driver ran away. Video footage showed the car\u2019s front grille smashed and its body heavily dented.<\/p>\n
Mr. Dobrindt said the attacker had wielded what appeared to be a machete during his rampage. Some victims had suffered stab wounds. Emergency workers quickly arrived and began administering first aid, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a horrific scene,\u201d Mr. Dobrindt said.<\/p>\n
Berlin\u2019s Charit\u00e9 hospital treated eight of the injured and had released four of them by midday Sunday, with the other four remaining in intensive care with non-life-threatening injuries, hospital representatives said<\/a>.<\/p>\n The attack reignited a debate in Germany about migration, religious extremism and public safety. It came months before Berlin and two other eastern states are set to hold closely watched regional elections in which polls have already suggested far-right parties are poised to make gains, partly on the basis of Germans\u2019 anxieties over public violence.<\/p>\n