German police have reportedly shot dead 21-year-old Abdul B., who was responsible for Saturday’s deadly terrorist attack in central Berlin. A speeding van ploughed into a crowd near the city’s Pride Parade, killing one person and injuring nearly 30 others. According to local media, the Islamic State sympathizer was neutralized in an allotment garden area in Berlin’s Spandau district.
The information about the suspected attacker being killed was first reported on Sunday by Berlin broadcaster Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB). According to the reports, the large-scale police operation ended in an allotment garden complex in the western part of the German capital. It was there that officers allegedly fatally shot the suspect. German authorities have not yet issued an official statement confirming the broadcaster’s reports.
The manhunt for the attacker had been ongoing without interruption since Saturday evening, putting law enforcement agencies across the city on full alert. Police were intensively searching for 21-year-old Abdul B., who had been identified by investigators as a sympathizer of the so-called Islamic State (IS).
The attack itself took place late on Saturday evening in the heart of Berlin. The perpetrator drove a van into a crowd of people walking along a path in the popular Tiergarten park. The attack occurred in one of the city’s most prominent and strategically important locations, close to both the Brandenburg Gate and Potsdamer Platz.
A Pride Parade was taking place in the immediate vicinity at the time, meaning that the area was packed with large crowds of people.
The toll of the brutal attack was tragic—one woman was killed and 29 people were injured after being struck by the vehicle.
German authorities were quick to address the nature of the attack, making no attempt to downplay its motive. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt stated that there was no doubt about the attacker’s motives, officially describing Saturday’s incident as an “Islamist terrorist attack.”