A deadly attack near Berlin’s Pride parade is now being treated as an Islamic State-inspired act after German media reported the suspect recorded a video pledging allegiance to the extremist group.
The video was discovered on the mobile phone of 21-year-old Abdul Rahman Ballout and was filmed on the day of the attack, the daily Bild reported, citing unnamed security sources.
According to Bild, investigators found Ballout’s phone inside the rented minivan that was driven into a crowd just hundreds of metres from the parade route before it slammed into a tree in the Tiergarten park.
Near the device, Bild said, police also recovered a sheath for a machete that Ballout is believed to have used in an attempt to attack more people after getting out of the vehicle.
The assault killed a 65-year-old Polish woman and left 29 others injured.
Police shot Ballout dead on Sunday, saying he charged at officers with a bladed weapon.
Ballout, a German citizen with Lebanese roots, was already known to the criminal justice system. Bild said he travelled to Lebanon last year in an unsuccessful bid to fight for IS.
A Lebanese judicial source said Ballout was sentenced there to three months in prison for belonging to IS.
After returning to Germany, he was detained and in May a juvenile court convicted him of “planning a serious act of subversive violence,” handing down a suspended sentence of one year and 10 months.
Prosecutors have been approached for confirmation.
