German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Monday vowed to take action in response to the deadly vehicle ramming attack on the Berlin Pride parade as debate erupted in Germany over why the suspected driver was not in prison.

The suspect, who was shot dead by police on Sunday, was identified as 21-year-old German citizen Abdul Ballout, who was recently convicted of preparing a violent act and was believed to have tried to join the Islamic State jihadist group.

“It is still too early to say what political conclusions we will draw from this brutal attack. … We will have to respond with prudence, but also with determination,” Merz said at a party press conference.

One person was killed in the attack in the Tiergarten park near the Brandenburg Gate on Saturday evening, whom Poland’s foreign minister identified as a Polish woman in her 60s.

Bild, a German newspaper, said the victim was visiting the Christopher Street Day celebrations with her daughter, who herself suffered injuries. In total, 29 people were wounded in the attack.

The suspected attacker, Ballout, was a German citizen with Lebanese roots and was born and raised in Berlin, according to Germany’s interior minister.

Police said they opened fire on him on Sunday when he ran toward officers armed with a bladed weapon.

Last year Ballout was detained in Lebanon during a failed attempt to fight for ISIS in Syria. A Lebanese judicial source told AFP that Ballout was sentenced to three months in jail there for belonging to ISIS.

He was detained on his return to Germany and in May was convicted of “planning a........

© The Times of Israel