Ballout was tracked down around 6 p.m. Sunday at a garden in Spandau, a Berlin suburb, the city\u2019s police department wrote on X. They said he apparently ran toward officers with a sharp instrument, and police fired at least one shot. He died at the scene.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything we see here points to us dealing with an Islamic terror attack,\u201d Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said before the suspect was found and killed.<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\tBy signing up, you agree to the terms<\/a><\/p>\n Dobrindt put the total number of wounded at 29. The attack occurred a few hundred yards from a party near the Brandenburg Gate that was supposed to close out the city\u2019s Pride festival.<\/p>\n \t Dobrindt said the suspect had come to authorities\u2019 attention in the past because of numerous previous crimes, of which he did not give details, and also because of \u201cradicalization and belonging to the Islamist scene\u201d in the German capital.<\/p>\n Suspect was previously arrested for ISIS support<\/p>\n He said Ballout was born in Germany, and that his mother was naturalized in 2002 \u2014 three years before he was born.<\/p>\n Dobrindt said the suspect had been convicted in Berlin in the past, though he did not specify for what. He said that he had been given a suspended sentence of 1 year and 10 months.<\/p>\n Ballout traveled to Lebanon in 2025 with the goal of going to Syria to join the Islamic State group, Berlin prosecutors said Sunday.<\/p>\n \t There, he made contact with several people who were presumed members of the militant group \u2014 or at least he believed them to be, prosecutors said. He was arrested in Lebanon last year and sentenced by a military court to three months\u2019 imprisonment for offenses including incitement to religious and sectarian conflict.<\/p>\n He returned to Germany after completing his sentence, where he was arrested at the Berlin airport.<\/p>\n In May, a juvenile court in Berlin convicted Ballout of preparing a serious act of violence endangering the state, as well as publishing Islamic State propaganda on his Instagram account and other charges, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n The court handed down a suspended sentence of 1 year and 10 months in youth custody, which Berlin prosecutors had appealed.<\/p>\n The court said it took Ballout\u2019s months of pre-trial detention in Germany and Lebanon into account. It also said it considered that Ballout had confessed to the crimes, appeared to distance himself from the militant group and no actual threat had ever materialized.<\/p>\n He was released from detention pending the appeal.<\/p>\n Berlin event is one of Europe\u2019s largest Pride celebrations<\/p>\n According to police, a white van drove into the Tiergarten park around 10 p.m., and hit several people before colliding with a tree. The closing party at the Pride festival, known as Christopher Street Day, was ongoing at the time next to the Brandenburg Gate, a short distance away. The party followed a parade with some 80 trucks that had made their way through downtown Berlin earlier in the day.<\/p>\n The attack did not occur at the festival, along its route or at the closing party. Rather, the violence took place nearby on a track in the Tiergarten park. The van drove into a crowd that was likely a mix of festivalgoers and other locals or visitors.<\/p>\n Police said a woman was killed. Berlin\u2019s fire service said that three people sustained life-threatening injuries and another eight were seriously injured.<\/p>\n The Pride event next to the Brandenburg Gate was called off around 10:15 p.m., and a band\u2019s performance on stage was interrupted. People were urged to go home and to avoid taking the route through the park.<\/p>\n \t On Sunday afternoon, hundreds of mourners gathered at a memorial at the iconic gate. They hugged each other and laid down flowers, candles, rainbow flags and homemade signs, including a cardboard one that said: \u201cThe only thing more powerful than hate is love.\u201d<\/p>\n Hundreds of thousands had come to Berlin to celebrate on Saturday, though it is unclear how many were still at the festival by late evening. It is one of Europe\u2019s largest LGBTQ+ celebrations.<\/p>\n The van, with its battered front resting against a tree, could still be seen at the scene Sunday morning.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are simply stunned by what happened,\u201d said Andre Lehmann, a top official with the main national LGBTQ+ association, LSVD+. \u201cThis suspected attack hits the heart of the queer community.\u201d<\/p>\n Chancellor Friedrich Merz vowed that law enforcement would find the suspect.<\/p>\n \u201cI would like to say this to Christopher Street Day participants here in Berlin but also across Germany: Don\u2019t let yourselves, let us not let ourselves, be intimidated,\u201d he said. \u201cThese acts have only one purpose: They aim to divide our society. They want to take away from us the most important thing we have: namely, our openness and our freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n \t Dobrindt said he expected security measures at other major events in Germany, including Pride events elsewhere, to be reviewed and if necessary significantly strengthened.<\/p>\n He pointed to concern about possible copycat crimes, adding that \u201cthis is not typical of such situations, but it also can\u2019t be ruled out.\u201d<\/p>\n Berlin has seen Islamic extremist attacks before. In December, 2016, a rejected asylum seeker from Tunisia plowed a hijacked truck into a Christmas market, killing 13 people and injuring dozens. He was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.<\/p>\n In February last year, a Spanish tourist was stabbed and seriously wounded at Berlin\u2019s Holocaust Memorial. A Syrian man was convicted in March and sentenced to 13 years in prison.<\/p>\n Saturday\u2019s violence \u201cis suspected to be an Islamist terror attack on our way of living together, on our liberal democracy, on our openness and our freedom,\u201d Wegner said.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident \u2013 ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded \u2013 I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.<\/p>\n There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.<\/p>\n As a Times of Israel reporter, I\u2019m committed to telling stories of resilience like Shilgit\u2019s. But my colleagues and I can’t do this alone. If you value work like this, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to keep real human reporting like this going.<\/p>\n \u2014 Stav Levaton, military reporter<\/p>\n \t\t\t
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AFP__20260725__C37R9CQ__v1__HighRes__GermanyLgbtqParadeCsdPolice-e1785016129378-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tPolice and security personnel work near the scene where several people were injured in a potential car-ramming on the sideline of the Christopher Street Day (CSD) parade in Berlin, Germany, on July 25, 2026. (Antoine LAMBROSCHINI\/AFP)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/25250997-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tA photo released by Berlin police shows Abdul Ballout, the 21-year-old suspect in a deadly attack near the Berlin Pride Festival on July 25, 2026. (Berlin Police)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AP26206832265898-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tTwo people walk together past emergency personnel in Berlin, early July 26, 2026, following the cancellation of Christopher Street Day festivities. (AP Photo\/Markus Schreiber)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AP26207562590676-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tChancellor Friedrich Merz speaks at a vigil for victims in the Pride March attack at St. Marien Church in Berlin, Germany, July 26, 2026. (AP Photo\/Markus Schreiber)<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\tWe can’t do this work alone.\t\t\t<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled-design-4-200x200.jpg\" "\\"\\"\/")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\tYes, I’ll join\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n