The only fatality of a car-ramming attack on Berlin's Pride celebrations over the weekend was a Polish woman, Poland’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday. The woman, who has not been named, was killed and 29 others were injured late on Saturday when a man drove a van into a crowd in Tiergarten park, close to where the Pride parade was taking place. Poland's Foreign Ministry confirmed the victim's nationality, saying it was "shocked and deeply saddened" by the news. It added that Poland's consul in Berlin was in contact with German authorities and would provide the victim's family with consular assistance. While investigations continue in Germany, prosecutors in the Polish capital, Warsaw, have also opened a probe into the incident. Kai Wegner, Berlin’s mayor, said the victim was visiting the city with her daughter, who was also, according to the German newspaper Bild, injured in the attack. "I was deeply affected by what happened on Saturday, and my thoughts are with you, and above all with the daughter and family of the murdered woman," Wegner said after offering condolences to Poland's charge d'affaires in Germany, Jan Tombiński, who attended a commemoration to the victims on Monday. German authorities identified the suspect as 21-year-old Abdul Ballout, whom they described as an Islamic State sympathizer. He was later shot dead by the police. 'Attack on our freedom' Germany's chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said the authorities' response "cannot end with statements alone." "We will have to respond with prudence, but also with determination," he added. Merz said the choice of Berlin's Pride parade as the target was deliberate. "This was not only an attack on the queer community. It was an attack on our freedom, an attack on our free society," he said. "It was an attack on our freedom and our liberal values, which we must protect and defend." He added that those attacked had been "peacefully celebrating openness, diversity" when they were targeted by "an Islamist who wanted to strike at those values."
