Suspect in Berlin Pride attack killed by police

Berlin police fatally shot the man suspected of driving a car into a crowd at an LGBT Pride event, killing one person and injuring 29 others. The suspect, identified as 21-year-old Abdul Ballout, was killed in the Spandau district during a police operation.

Bild newspaper reported that special forces surrounded a garden plot where they engaged in a shootout with the fugitive. Ballout had been on the run since allegedly committing the attack on Saturday evening. Police had searched his Berlin apartment and other locations without success.

According to the prosecutor's office, Ballout had prior convictions for assault and theft. In May, he received a one-year and ten-month prison sentence for attempting to join the Islamic State group in Syria. He was on conditional release while prosecutors appealed for a longer sentence and was participating in a de-radicalization program.

Berlin's Interior Minister Iris Spranger expressed gratitude to security forces for their swift apprehension of the attacker. "It is an extraordinary achievement," she stated. Investigators have not ruled out the possibility that Ballout had accomplices. Several associates have been arrested for questioning, though their potential role in the attack remains officially unconfirmed.