Suspect Abdul Balout [Berlin Police/Reuters=Yonhap News]

The number of casualties from the vehicle ramming attack in Berlin, Germany, on the 25th (local time) has risen to 30. Authorities have classified the incident as a terrorist attack stemming from Islamic extremism and are currently pursuing the suspect who fled the scene.

German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt held a press conference on the 26th at Berlin’s Tiergarten Park, where the incident occurred, stating, "We have confirmed that one person has died and 29 others are injured. Some are in serious condition." Police had previously reported early that morning that one woman had died and 16 were injured. While some of the injured have been discharged, three remain in critical condition.

Minister Dobrindt stated that the fleeing suspect, Abdul Balout (21), drove a vehicle into the crowd at the park before attacking pedestrians with a weapon believed to be a machete. He labeled the incident an "Islamist terrorist attack," adding that all available evidence points to this conclusion.

Vehicle used in the crime [AFP=Yonhap News]

According to the daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) and other reports, the suspect, a German national of Lebanese descent, was arrested last November on charges of attempting to join the extremist terrorist group Islamic State (IS) in Syria. Born and raised in Berlin, he had recently returned to Germany after being released from a prison in Lebanon last October.

The Tiergarten District Court in Berlin sentenced the suspect to a suspended prison term of one year and ten months this past May. He was released on the condition that he attend 26 deradicalization and counseling sessions, the third of which was scheduled for the 27th.

The incident occurred at approximately 10:15 p.m. the previous day when a white Citroën van rammed into a crowd at Tiergarten Park in central Berlin. It appears that after the vehicle struck a tree and came to a stop, the suspect, Balout, stepped out of the vehicle and brandished a weapon while fleeing.

Immediately following the incident, police deployed helicopters equipped with thermal imaging cameras to track the suspect and have been searching the residences of the suspect and his family since early this morning, but his whereabouts remain unknown. Authorities suspect that Balout is likely still armed and have issued a warrant for his arrest while deploying heavy security forces to locations such as city subway and train stations.

Mourning the victims [EPA=Yonhap News]

Broadcaster rbb reported that an Iranian national who was in the vehicle at the time of the incident was arrested early this morning. It has not been confirmed which of the two was driving.

The incident took place directly in front of the parade route for Christopher Street Day (CSD), a festival for the LGBTQ+ community. Berlin's CSD, held every year in late July, attracts as many as one million participants. The organizers halted performances at the Brandenburg Gate, located about 500 meters from the site of the attack, and canceled all remaining events.

Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, currently monitors 9,110 individuals with violent extremist tendencies nationwide, with 1,940 of them located in Berlin alone.

In December 2016, Anis Amri (deceased, 24 at the time), a Tunisian IS sympathizer, drove a truck into a Berlin Christmas market, killing 13 people. In December 2024, Taleb al-Abdulmohsen (51), a physician from Saudi Arabia, drove a vehicle into a crowd at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Saxony-Anhalt, resulting in 6 deaths. Al-Abdulmohsen was an anti-Islamic extremist who claimed to be a Saudi women's rights activist and harbored resentment toward the former German government's inclusive refugee policy.