Police vehicles and repair instrumentality astatine the country to assistance repair damaged energy cables astatine a span starring to the Lichterfelde powerfulness works implicit Teltow Canal pursuing an arson onslaught connected January 4, 2026 successful Berlin, Germany.
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A suspected arson onslaught has near tens of thousands of homes and businesses successful Germany's superior without energy successful near-freezing temperatures.
A occurrence successful southwest Berlin connected Saturday prompted a large powerfulness outage, with astir 45,000 households and 2,200 commercialized entities crossed 4 districts affected, according to grid relation Stromnetz Berlin.
The origin was identified arsenic a occurrence connected a cablegram span implicit the Teltow Canal adjacent the Lichterfelde powerfulness station, with respective cables damaged arsenic a result.
Approximately 10,000 households and 300 businesses successful Berlin's Lichterfelde territory person since had energy restored, Stromnetz Berlin said, though 35,000 households and 1,900 businesses stay affected.
The grid institution said powerfulness for each customers is not expected to beryllium restored until Thursday afternoon, astatine a clip erstwhile Berlin is experiencing snowy conditions and sub-zero regular temperatures.
Local officials person attributed the powerfulness outage to an arson onslaught from The Vulkangruppe (The Volcano Group), a left-wing extremist group.
The Vulkangruppe reportedly published a missive soon aft the attack, claiming work for the incident. They said their actions were directed astatine the fossil fuel-based vigor industry, citing the climate crisis and buildout of artificial quality infrastructure. CNBC has been incapable to independently verify the letter.
"The contemptuous onslaught connected our powerfulness grid was not left-wing extremism. That was left-wing terrorism, and that indispensable beryllium intelligibly stated arsenic such," Iris Spranger, Berlin's interior affairs minister, said astatine a property league connected Monday.
"Here, collateral harm to the beingness and limb of radical successful #Berlin was deliberately accepted," Spranger said, according to a Google translation of her comments posted connected X.
The entree roadworthy to a closed petrol presumption is blocked owed to a powerfulness failure. After a cablegram span caught fire, 50,000 households and 2,000 businesses successful south-west Berlin mislaid power.
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The powerfulness outage comes astir 4 months aft a suspected arson attack connected powerfulness lines successful southeast Berlin affected astir 50,000 households.
Vulkangruppe previously claimed work for an onslaught connected the powerfulness proviso of Tesla's gigafactory adjacent Berlin successful 2024. The incident forced Elon Musk's institution to halt accumulation for a little period.
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