Attacks on power grid: European manhunt for 48-year-old from Gevelsberg
Following further sabotage attacks on the German power grid, police are conducting a Europe-wide search for a man from Gevelsberg. Two confessional letters provide investigators with concrete leads.
Sabotage on German power grid: confessional letters lead to Europe-wide manhunt
Following another attempted attack on energy supplies in North Rhine-Westphalia, German police have launched a Europe-wide manhunt for a 48-year-old man from Gevelsberg near Hagen. According to 20 Minuten, the man is said to have written two handwritten confessional letters that were sent to several German media outlets, including taz and F.A.Z.
According to media reports, the letters contain information about acts that were not publicly known at the time of sending. "Whether he is actually a suspect or a copycat will have to be examined first," emphasised a police spokesman. Nevertheless, investigators are taking the lead seriously.
Device discovered in Dormagen
On Thursday evening, emergency services found a suspicious firing device at a transformer station in Dormagen – between Düsseldorf and Cologne. A pedestrian had discovered the construction and alerted the authorities. According to police, it closely resembles devices that had previously been used in Bergheim: cables were fired over overhead lines there and several power plant blocks were disabled. According to police, no infrastructure damage occurred in Dormagen itself. According to Bild, the devices were equipped with time switches and copper wires.
Earlier, there had been successful attacks in Bergheim and in the eastern German town of Jänschwalde: wires fired into the lines caused short circuits in the power grid.
Indication of unknown attack near Aachen
In the confessional letter, the author also mentioned another planned attack on a power plant near Aachen – at a time when even the authorities knew nothing about it. Police then searched the area around the Weisweiler power plant near Aachen on Friday with strong forces. Forensic staff were deployed in protective suits and with breathing apparatus.
A reporter from the German news agency (dpa) observed officers securing numerous thin wires. The investigation focused on several locations in a field and in a copse immediately next to the power plant and a transformer station in the town of Eschweiler. The areas were photographed for documentation. Police initially made no official statement on the operation.
Wanted man not found at home
Parallel to the forensic investigation, the search for the suspected author is underway. In Gevelsberg, police stormed a residential building belonging to the man's family – he was not found there. According to dpa information, he could be travelling in a distinctive truck with a high, box-shaped superstructure. Bild meanwhile published a photograph of the suspect and his vehicle.
In the confessional letters, which dpa also has access to, the author claims responsibility for all previously known attacks on the power grid and states that he acted alone. As justification, he wrote: "Electricity generation from fossil fuels is a crime."
Source: 20 Minuten