Search for electricity grid sabotage: police release photos of 48-year-old
In North Rhine-Westphalia, Brandenburg and Saxony, attacks on the electricity grid were carried out. Authorities are searching for a 48-year-old suspect using wanted photos.
Suspect on the run: wanted photos after attacks on German electricity grid
Following a series of sabotage acts against the German electricity grid, police are conducting a public manhunt for a 48-year-old suspect. As n-tv reports, authorities in Brandenburg and North Rhine-Westphalia have jointly released two photos of the wanted man and are calling on the public for information.
The incidents span three federal states: North Rhine-Westphalia, Brandenburg and Saxony. In all three regions, lignite is still being mined and used for electricity generation. Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt described the probable motive as "climate terrorism" by an individual. Two letters claiming responsibility, which were received by several media outlets, contained according to his words "clear evidence of the perpetrator's knowledge". One of the letters states: "Electricity generation from fossil fuels is a crime."
Explosives found in flat, suspect escapes
On Friday, officers found explosives in the suspect's flat in Gevelsberg (North Rhine-Westphalia). Shortly afterwards, a special operations unit stormed a lorry parked in a forest around 100 kilometres away in Niederzier, which appeared to have been converted into a mobile home. The wanted man was no longer there.
North Rhine-Westphalia Interior Minister Herbert Reul warned against downplaying the motive behind the act: anyone who endangers the electricity supply to hospitals in the name of climate protection is not saving anything but putting lives at risk. "No ideology serves as an excuse," Reul emphasised.
Timeline of attacks
The sequence began on Tuesday morning with an attack in southern Brandenburg. Using more than 20 homemade rockets, conductive material was directed towards the high-voltage power lines at the Turnow-Preilack switching station near Jänschwalde power plant. In two cases, a short circuit occurred. According to the responsible grid operator, there was no power outage.
That same evening, a malfunction occurred at a switching station in Bergheim near Cologne. Launch devices and pyrotechnic materials were also seized there. According to RWE Power, five lignite power plant units at the Niederaußem and Neurath sites subsequently went offline. Several units resumed operation later; one was due to return to the grid the following week. According to the operator, general electricity supply was not interrupted at any time.
On Thursday evening, a passer-by discovered suspected launch devices at a switching station in Dormagen, between Cologne and Düsseldorf, and alerted the police. The following day, investigators searched the area around Weisweiler power plant near Aachen based on a tip from a letter claiming responsibility.
On Friday evening, a large police operation took place at an electricity facility in Hamm, which according to a police spokesperson had been out of operation for some time. In eastern Saxony, authorities discovered a total of twelve explosive devices in the area of high-voltage power lines — south of the Bärwalde switching station near Lippen and east of the Graustein switching station near Schleife. Both locations are in the Lusatian lignite region near the border with Brandenburg. Police and the Dresden Public Prosecutor General's Office stated that a connection to the incidents in Brandenburg and North Rhine-Westphalia is currently being examined.
Investigators are pursuing the case, among other reasons, on suspicion of forming a terrorist organisation.
Calls for better protection of critical infrastructure
North Rhine-Westphalia Interior Minister Reul called as a consequence for better protection of critical infrastructure. This requires clear legal foundations as well as modern technology such as cameras, sensors and alarm systems.
Christoph Müller, head of transmission system operator Amprion, sees politics as being responsible. "The economy must make many statements about electricity and gas networks public and publish them online. This makes it unnecessarily easy for attackers — regardless of where they come from," Müller told the "Rheinische Post". He called for relaxed transparency regulations and permission to regularly monitor power lines with drones. Moreover, companies must be allowed to monitor not only their own premises but also the surrounding area with cameras.
According to its own information, Amprion operates around 11,000 kilometres of high-voltage power lines from the North Sea to the Alps in seven federal states, including North Rhine-Westphalia.
Source: n-tv