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A suspect with alleged ties to Germany’s “Islamist scene” is on the run after allegedly plowing a van into a crowd near Berlin’s Pride festival and attacking others with a machete in what officials believe was an Islamic terror attack that left one person dead and at least 29 others injured.
German authorities on Sunday launched an intensive manhunt for Abdul Ballout, a German citizen with Lebanese roots whom officials say may be armed and dangerous.
“Everything we see here points to us dealing with an Islamic terror attack,” German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said.
AT LEAST 1 DEAD, SEVERAL INJURED AFTER VAN RAMS INTO CROWD AT PRIDE FESTIVAL; SUSPECT ‘KNOWN TO POLICE’
The minister said the suspect had previously come to the attention of authorities for multiple crimes, as well as his “radicalization and belonging to the Islamist scene.”
Dobrindt said Ballout was born in Germany and that his mother became a naturalized German citizen in 2002, three years before he was born. He said the suspect previously received a suspended prison sentence of one year and 10 months but did not disclose what he had been convicted of.
Police said a white van drove into a crowd in Berlin’s Tiergarten park around 10 p.m. on Saturday before crashing into a tree. Authorities say the suspect then attacked several people with a machete before fleeing.
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A woman was killed, while three people suffered life-threatening injuries and eight others were seriously hurt, according to Berlin’s fire service. Dobrindt said at least 29 people were injured.
The attack happened a few hundred yards from Berlin’s annual Christopher Street Day Pride celebration — one of Europe’s largest LGBTQ+ events — but not on the parade route or at the festival’s closing event near the Brandenburg Gate. Investigators said the victims appeared to include both Pride attendees and other people who were in the park.
Organizers stopped the celebration shortly after the attack, cutting off a live performance and urging people to leave the area.
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Berlin police said Ballout has been identified as the suspect but had not been arrested as of Sunday. Police spokesman Florian Nath earlier said the suspect was known to investigators because of his alleged ties to Islamic groups in Berlin.
“The suspect is known to police. He is known to us as a member of Islamic circles here in Berlin, and our search for this person is proceeding at full speed,” Nath said, according to The Associated Press. “We still have no information whatsoever regarding his specific motives, the exact sequence of events, or his role in the crime itself.”
Police searched several locations across Berlin overnight and into Sunday, including an apartment in the Schöneberg district, but did not find the suspect.
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The manhunt is ongoing.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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