Chief suspect in Berlin Pride attack shot dead, police say

The suspect in the deadly Berlin Pride attack that left one person dead and 29 injured was shot and killed by police during a confrontation on Sunday in a suburb of the city, authorities said.

Abdul Ballout, a German citizen with Lebanese roots, was killed following a search that lasted nearly 24 hours after the attack in downtown Berlin. Berlin prosecutors said the suspect had previously sought to join Islamic State.

The attack happened a few hundred metres from a party near the city’s Brandenburg Gate that was supposed to close the city’s Pride festival.

Ballout was born in Germany, the minister said. His mother was naturalised in 2002, three years before he was born.

Authorities have described the incident at one of Europe’s largest LGBT events as an Islamist terror attack.

Hundreds of people flocked on Sunday evening to Berlin’s Tiergarten park to lay flowers and candles along the Ahornsteig, the tree-lined pedestrian path where the attack took place. Other vigils were scheduled across the city.