Terrorist attack on Berlin Pride

Abdul Ballout has been shot dead during an operation – went on the attack armed with a knife

The man suspected of the Berlin attack, 21-year-old Abdul Ballout, has been shot dead during a police operation. The Berlin police wrote this in a post on X, thus confirming earlier information.

It happened during an operation in the Spandau district. According to the police, the 21-year-old went on the attack with a knife, whereupon the police shot him. He died at the scene.

A witness tells Focus that the police arrived at the scene at 2 p.m., and that more and more police officers joined in as they went along. According to the witness's information, eight shots were fired during the operation, which was carried out in a residential area.

According to Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, everything points to the attack on Berlin Pride being an Islamist terrorist attack. One person died and 29 were injured when a car was driven into a crowd.

Sources: Ballout to participate in deradicalization course

Abdul Ballout, who is suspected of the terrorist attack on the Pride celebration in Berlin, was to participate in a deradicalization program – and had a meeting booked already tomorrow, according to sources to Die Welt.

Berliner Morgenpost writes that Ballout has already participated in the first stage of the program, namely several preliminary meetings that will determine his conditions for moving on. He has already attended two meetings, one in June and one earlier in July, and a third was already planned.

According to the newspaper's sources, however, Ballout was not a good candidate for professionally led deradicalization, as he was not considered to honestly want to participate in the process. However, he did not show any aggressive behavior during the meetings, or any signs of wanting to commit violent crimes.

Abdul Ballout was well known to the police and had previously been convicted of crimes.

Reactions to the Berlin attack
Expert: If you get one attack, there will usually be another

Terrorism researcher Hans Brun warns that authorities must be on their toes after the terrorist attack on the Pride event in Berlin.

– If you get one attack, there will usually be another attack quite soon, he tells TV4 Nyheterna.

Brun says that the wars in the world have made the terrorist threat in Europe high and complex, and that we must keep an eye on groups such as jihadists, right-wing extremists and Hamas supporters.

Pride festivals in particular are often targets for extremists, he says. And even if there is a risk that a new attack will occur, it does not necessarily have to be in Germany.