Search for 48-year-old: Explosive devices at substations in three states
Police are searching for a 48-year-old man from Gevelsberg who claimed responsibility in letters for sabotage acts against Germany's electricity grid.
Search for sabotage suspect continues
Police are searching for a 48-year-old man from Gevelsberg near Hagen who has claimed responsibility in two letters for several sabotage acts against Germany's electricity grid. According to Tagesschau, a spokesman for Cologne police confirmed that "the search" continues.
North Rhine-Westphalia's Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) identified the suspect as a 48-year-old man from the Ruhr region. In his letters claiming responsibility, Reul said he took responsibility for attempted attacks on substations in Brandenburg — around the Jänschwalde and Schwarze Pumpe power stations — as well as for attacks on the electricity supply near Gohr, Bergheim-Rheidt, Dormagen and Weisweiler in North Rhine-Westphalia. According to Reul, the letters contained perpetrator knowledge not previously known to the public.
The suspect cited the "fight against fossil fuels" as his motive in the letters. The affected regions in North Rhine-Westphalia, Brandenburg and Saxony have in common that lignite is still being mined and converted into electricity there.
In Saxony, explosive devices were discovered near two substations. According to police, information about these devices came from another letter claiming responsibility that arrived with authorities on Thursday.
After a house search on Friday, during which officers secured explosives in the suspect's flat, his vehicle was found shortly afterwards at Hambach Forest — a lorry converted into a camper van. Police were unable to arrest the man himself during any of the operations.
Whether the suspect is actually responsible for one or more of the attempted attacks remains unconfirmed so far. In addition to a possible left-wing extremist background, Reul did not rule out "sabotage controlled by a foreign state". The investigators are examining both scenarios.
Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) spoke of "climate extremism" in this context and emphasised that Germany must reckon with further attack scenarios of this kind.
Christoph Müller, chief executive of transmission system operator Amprion, also assumes that further attacks on the electricity grid will take place. In an interview with the Rheinische Post, he called for comprehensive legislative changes to protect critical infrastructure. "Industry must make many details about electricity and gas networks public and place them online. This makes it unnecessarily easy for would-be attackers — regardless of where they come from," Müller explained. He advocated for loosening transparency requirements for network operators as well as expanding regulations for drone and video surveillance. Currently, according to Müller, drones may only be used in special cases.
Source: Tagesschau