Polish citizen killed in Berlin Pride parade attack, mayor confirms
The woman killed in Saturday's terrorist attack at the Berlin Pride parade was a Polish citizen who was visiting the city with her daughter, Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner confirmed on Monday.
Wegner said that he had conveyed his formal condolences to Jan Tombinski, the Polish charge d'affaires to Germany.
"I am deeply moved by Saturday's events, and my thoughts are with the country, and above all, with the daughter and family of the murdered woman," Wegner said, as reported by the dpa news agency.
The attack occurred late Saturday evening when a perpetrator deliberately ploughed a van into a crowd of pedestrians in a Tiergarten park alleyway near the closing events of the annual Christopher Street Day celebrations. The ramming left the Polish woman dead and 29 others injured.
Following a police manhunt, the suspect was tracked down on Sunday to an allotment garden complex in Berlin's borough of Spandau. He was shot and killed by police after rushing toward officers with a stabbing weapon. German security services have officially identified the deceased attacker as 21-year-old Abdul B., a sympathiser of the Islamic State (IS) militant group.
In Warsaw, Polish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maciej Wewior expressed profound grief over the tragedy.
"We are shocked and deeply saddened to learn that a Polish citizen was the victim of the tragic attack in Berlin. We extend our most sincere condolences to the family and loved ones of the deceased," Wewior wrote on X.
He added that the Polish consul in Berlin is in contact with German authorities and will provide the victim's family with all necessary consular assistance.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told a press conference in Berlin on Monday that the brutal assault will bring political consequences and vowed that Germany would respond with both "prudence and firmness."
"It is too early to determine specific actions but clear that statements alone are insufficient," he added.
Merz said that targeting the Pride parade was a deliberate choice, describing it as an attack on "free and liberal values" rather than the queer community alone. He added that "prayers were with the deceased Polish victim, her loved ones, and the injured" who were targeted by an Islamist attempting to strike at openness and diversity.(PAP)
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