German police announced Saturday night that they had identified a suspect with Islamist ideology, who would be the perpetrator of the mass run-over recorded during the Pride march in Berlin, which left at least one dead and 17 injured.
According to the Tagesspiegel newspaper, the alleged perpetrator of the attack would be Abdul B., “known to the police and linked to the Islamist movement in Berlin,” police spokesman Florian Nath declared.
His identification occurred after a failed search of a residence near Tiergarten Park, in Berlin’s Schöneberg district, Nath himself confirmed to the DPA agency.
According to information obtained by the news channel Welt, the car involved in the run-over had been rented shortly before the incident by Abdul B., who was born in 2005 and was released from a juvenile detention center last May.
The suspect also has a police record for religiously motivated crimes and it is now being investigated whether he was also driving the vehicle.
Various German media outlets report that more than 2,200 police officers have been deployed since the incident began and are heavily armed.
Undercover agents, police from other German states, and special units are also participating in the search.
Police authorities also confirmed that the number of injured increased to 17, although only one fatality remains as a result of the mass run-over during the Pride march celebrations in Tiergarten, the main park of the German capital.
At that moment, a white van entered the vicinity of the park, around 10:00 PM local time (4:00 PM in Chile), running over several march participants before crashing into a tree.
Berlin Police would also be investigating a second attack after the crash, after several people were found with stab wounds.
“Part of the investigation is to determine if there was a second phase of the incident after the initial driving. Specifically, if someone exited the vehicle and attacked people with possible bladed weapons, causing injuries,” Nath stated.
According to a spokesperson for the capital’s Fire Department, in statements reported by Tagesspiegel, the deceased person would be a woman who had initially been resuscitated but declared dead shortly after.
Read more Pride march in Berlin suspended after crash left several injured
