Car-Ramming Terrorist Behind Attack That Left 30 Dead and Injured Shot Dead... "IS Sympathizer"

[Anchor]

A vehicle plowed into a pride festival in Germany attended by hundreds of thousands of people, leaving 1 person dead and 29 others injured. The suspect, a man in his 20s who was recently released after being arrested for attempting to join the extremist terrorist group IS, was shot and killed during a police operation.

Reporter Je Hui-won has the details.

[Reporter]

A white van is brought to a halt after crashing into a wooden pillar.

This is the vehicle that the suspect abandoned and fled after driving into a crowd at a pride festival in Berlin, Germany, on the 25th local time.

The suspect is 21-year-old Abdul Balout, a German national of Lebanese descent.

Immediately after the incident, police searched the residences of the suspect and his family. The suspect was spotted in northwestern Berlin on the afternoon of the 26th local time, and was shot and killed by a police tactical unit during an arrest operation.

[Jörn Ipsen / Berlin Police: (During the arrest process, the suspect) approached police officers armed with a weapon and was neutralized by a special operations unit using firearms, ultimately resulting in his death.]

Investigative authorities believe that the suspect was arrested last November on charges of attempting to join the extremist terrorist group IS and was released from prison two months ago.

It was determined that at the time of the incident, the suspect drove a vehicle toward crowds in a park and then inflicted serious injuries on pedestrians with a weapon presumed to be a logging knife.

Local media reported that the incident left one woman in her 20s dead and 29 others injured, with some in critical condition and fighting for their lives.

At the accident scene, mourners left flowers alongside a sign reading, "Love is stronger than hate."

Defining this incident as a "terrorist attack by an Islamic extremist," investigative authorities have transferred the case to the Federal Prosecutor's Office, which handles terrorism cases.

[Video Editing: Choi Jin-hwa]
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.