Police hunt suspect in series of sabotage attacks on German power grid

Police are continuing an intensive manhunt for a man suspected of carrying out sabotage attacks on Germany’s electricity grid.

The manhunt follows two letters of claim sent to several media outlets, including dpa. “The knowledge revealed in these letters is clearly the knowledge of the perpetrator,” said Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt.

On the likely motive, Dobrindt said it was highly probable that the attacks amounted to “climate terrorism” by a lone actor. One of the letters states: “Generating electricity from fossil fuels is a crime.”

The incidents were concentrated in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Brandenburg and most recently Saxony – three states where lignite is still mined and used to generate power.

Police and prosecutors in Brandenburg and North Rhine-Westphalia issued a joint wanted notice on Saturday afternoon, releasing two photographs of the 48-year-old suspect and appealing to the public for information.

On Friday, officers found explosives at the suspect’s flat in Gevelsberg in North Rhine-Westphalia. Later that afternoon, a special operations unit raided a lorry in a forest near Niederzier, roughly 100 kilometres away, which appeared to have been converted into a motorhome. The suspect was not found.

There have been several attempts at sabotage relating to the electricity supply this week. Police are investigating on suspicion of, among other things, forming a terrorist organization.

Series of attempted sabotage on energy grid

On Tuesday morning, there was initially an attack on the power supply in southern Brandenburg.

According to dpa reports, more than 20 homemade rockets were used to propel conductive material at extra-high-voltage power lines, causing a short circuit on two occasions. According to the grid operator, there was no power cut.

That same evening, launch devices and pyrotechnics were found at a substation near Cologne, forcing five lignite power units offline – though the general power supply was secured at all times, according to the operator.

Further devices were discovered at substations in Dormagen and near Aachen later in the week, while a police operation was also launched at a disused power facility in Hamm on Friday evening.

In eastern Saxony, officers found 12 explosive devices near high-voltage lines in the Lusatian lignite region; authorities said they were designed to trigger short circuits and are examining links to the earlier incidents.