German police have shot dead the suspect in a car-ramming attack on Berlin’s Pride march, ending a 24-hour manhunt,
Al Jazeera reports.
Abdul Ballout, a German citizen with Lebanese roots, was killed on Sunday as he attacked officers with a bladed weapon, police said. Officials have asserted that all indications suggest he had carried out an “Islamist terror attack”.
Ballout was the main suspect in the attack that took place on Saturday evening in which a van drove into a crowd attending the Berlin Pride event in the centre of the German capital. The car ramming killed one person and injured 29.
The shooting occurred in Spandau, a northwestern district of Berlin. Police said Ballout died despite efforts to resuscitate him.
“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 social media.
“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.”
Ballout was known to authorities due to a “high number” of previous crimes and for being radicalised, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said earlier on Sunday.
“Everything we see here indicates that this was an Islamist terror attack,” he said.
