Sabotage at electrical substations in North Rhine-Westphalia and Brandenburg: police receive confession letter
Following attacks on electrical substations in Dormagen, Bergheim and South Brandenburg, police have received a confession letter. Damage has so far only occurred in Bergheim.
Confession letter following attacks on energy infrastructure in Germany
Following the discovery of a suspicious object at an electrical substation in Dormagen, located between Cologne and Düsseldorf, investigators are treating the incident as sabotage. According to 20 Minuten, Cologne police have received a confession letter that, besides the Dormagen incident, also mentions previously publicly known suspected cases in North Rhine-Westphalia and Brandenburg.
A pedestrian discovered the suspicious object on Thursday evening at the electrical substation. Investigations are not yet complete; according to a police spokesman, it could be a "suspicious launching device". At the same time, police are checking further electrical substations in surrounding regions for similar devices. Aside from the substation in Bergheim near Cologne, no damage has been reported so far.
On Tuesday, an attack occurred on an electrical substation in Bergheim, west of Cologne. According to authorities, cables were thrown over overhead lines, which triggered a short circuit. Investigators subsequently discovered several launching devices there.
A comparable incident had occurred a few hours earlier in South Brandenburg. Near the Jänschwalde power station, conductive material was directed towards high-voltage power lines using homemade flying objects resembling New Year's Eve fireworks. More than a dozen such devices were recovered. According to the grid operator, no power outage occurred. Investigators believe that both incidents – Bergheim and Jänschwalde – were the result of sabotage aimed at undermining the constitutional order.
The German newspaper taz reported on Thursday evening that it had received a confession letter regarding the Brandenburg incident; the postmark indicated it had been sent from North Rhine-Westphalia. According to taz, the sender describes himself as acting alone, details the homemade rockets used, and cites as his motive the "immeasurable suffering" caused by the use of fossil fuels. The newspaper explicitly stated that it could not definitively be established whether the author of the letter was actually the perpetrator.
Source: 20 Minuten