Berlin
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As heavy snow fell and temperatures plummeted to below freezing in the German capital, an alleged arson attack on Berlin’s electricity supply facilities by left-wingers caused a massive power outage on Saturday, leaving around 100,000 people without power for several days.
Activist group Vulcan Group claimed responsibility for the attack, accusing fossil fuels and AI of playing a role in accelerating the climate crisis.
Around 45,000 homes and more than 2,000 businesses in Berlin’s wealthy southwest district were affected by the power outage, which lasted more than four days.
The power outage is believed to be the longest in Berlin’s postwar history.
The attack on Berlin’s power supply occurred early Saturday morning, when a fire broke out in a cable duct spanning the Teltow Canal in the south of the city. The fire damaged several high-voltage cables near Berlin’s Richterfelde power plant.
Authorities extinguished the fire, but it was not possible to extinguish it by the time the power went out around 6 a.m. The outage affected up to 45,000 homes and 2,200 businesses across four southern Berlin districts, including Nikolasee, Zehlendorf, Wannsee and Richterfelde, according to Stromnets Berlin, which operates the city’s power grid.
The attack left people without power or heat, disrupted surface rail lines and disrupted mobile phone connectivity as nighttime temperatures reached minus 10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit).
Valkangruppe later claimed responsibility for the fire in a letter to police. “We have succeeded in sabotaging the Berlin-Lichterfelde gas-fired power plant,” said the letter, which was circulated online.
The group said this caused power outages in “wealthy” areas of Berlin.
In a letter, Burkan Group apologized to the less affluent residents of southwestern Berlin, saying its aim was to target the fossil fuel industry and that the move was a “necessary measure against the expansion of fossil fuel-fired power plants” in Germany.
“The blackouts were not the purpose of the action, but the fossil fuel industry,” the newspaper said.
“We know we have to stop this destruction. We know we are not alone. Don’t give up hope for a world where life has room to live, not greed for money, power and destruction,” he said, adding, “People call us eco-terrorists, but we still respect life. They call us irresponsible, but we have a responsibility to end this imperial and destructive way of life.”
Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner told reporters on Wednesday that the incident was “not a minor act of arson or sabotage, but a terrorist attack by a left-wing extremist organization that had a huge impact on many Berliners.”
German federal prosecutors announced on Wednesday that they had opened an investigation into the incident on suspicion of crimes related to participation in a terrorist organization, unconstitutional obstruction, and arson.
Deputy Police Chief Marco Langner said an 83-year-old woman died during the power outage. Langner said Wednesday that she was found by a relative who called an ambulance, but paramedics were unable to save her, but gave no further details about the circumstances of her death.
He added that there were also reports of robberies during the power outage.
The attack forced the suspension of train service on several above-ground S-Bahn lines in Berlin, as well as power outages to homes and businesses.
Mobile phone networks were also disrupted. “Because there was no mobile phone reception, the information was arriving very slowly and we didn’t know whether it was in Berlin, all of Germany, or all over the world,” Nicolasse resident Thomas Ohm told CNN.
Five hospitals in the affected area were forced to switch to emergency backup generators. Stromnetz-Berlin said power had been restored to those hospitals by Sunday.
The utility said the gradual restoration of power to customers began at 11 a.m. Wednesday, but warned residents not to use high-power electrical equipment immediately after power was restored.
Thomas Dastig, a Berlin resident affected by the power outage, told CNN the experience was “eerie.”
“My coldest room was 4 degrees Celsius (39 degrees Fahrenheit) and my warmest room was 8 degrees Celsius (46 degrees Fahrenheit). I was scared of my pipes freezing,” he said.
Another resident, Daniel Veste, said he worked with his sister to install generators in eight homes in the neighborhood.
“We especially took care of the elderly,” he said.
Domenico Castronovo, owner of a small pizzeria in Berlin’s Nicolasse district, told CNN that the power outage had a “severe impact” on many local businesses.
“Due to power supply interruptions, we were forced to temporarily close, resulting in the loss of large amounts of food and stockpiled supplies,” he said.
A few kilometers from the disaster area, life continued as normal, with shops and restaurants open and fellow Berliners offering beds and showers to the victims.
Following the attack, hundreds of police officers were deployed to areas affected by power outages, illuminating areas with lighting masts and setting up mobile stations after nightfall. Police also set up a hotline for victims.
The Walkangruppe is a German far-left extremist group driven by anarchist, anti-capitalist, and radical environmental ideology.
This group is known for committing arson attacks. According to Germany’s domestic intelligence agency BfV, the group has carried out multiple similar attacks targeting critical infrastructure since 2011.
In March 2024, the group claimed responsibility for a large-scale attack on the electricity supply to the Tesla Gigafactory near Berlin, which forced production to halt for several days. The group published a letter online claiming they set fire to a pylon at an electric car factory after the attack.
CNN’s Chris Stern contributed to this report.
