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Belin mayor Kai Wegner has classified the major attack on the German capital’s power supply as terrorism.
“This is not just arson or sabotage. This is already terrorism,” the conservative politician told the regional RBB television on Sunday evening.
Wegner said that a left-wing extremist group attacked the infrastructure, endangering lives, including those of elderly people who might need ventilators and families with young children.
“We must catch these perpetrators now,” he added.

The Berlin police, the city-state’s Criminal Police Office and the regional domestic intelligence service, officially the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, have been involved in the investigation.
“We are also in contact with the Federal Criminal Police Office, with the federal level, because this is no joke but a terrorist attack,” Wegner said.
Pressure must now be increased to apprehend the perpetrators, he said.
Thousands of homes in southwest Berlin had their power restored on Sunday. Saturday’s outage affected around 45,000 households and more than 2,200 businesses.
The local electricity operator Stromnetz Berlin reported that power has been restored to about 14,000 households and nearly 500 commercial customers. Several large hospitals were also back online.
A lengthy document titled “Cutting off the Power to the Rulers” was received from the alleged perpetrators claiming responsibility for Saturday’s attack.

“In the greed for energy, the Earth is drained, sucked dry, burnt, abused, burnt down, raped destroyed,” it said. The gas power plant in Berlin-Lichterfelde was “successfully sabotaged”, it added.
“Power outages were not the target of the action, but rather the fossil energy industry,” the group claims in the letter.
Early on Saturday morning, a fire on a cable bridge over the Teltow Canal to a power station damaged several key power lines, affecting the city’s Nikolassee, Zehlendorf, Wannsee and Lichterfelde districts.
The power cut hit street lighting, mobile telecommunications, traffic lights and supermarket fridges, as well as private households, shutting down heating systems as temperatures hovered around freezing point.
Police began investigating a suspected arson attack after the state security service responsible for political crimes received the letter claiming responsibility.
The letter is authentic, the member of the city’s administration responsible for interior matters, Iris Spranger, said on Sunday. In Berlin’s government such ministers are called senators.

The electricity provider reconnected many homes overnight but said it will not be possible to restore power to all affected households until Thursday afternoon. September’s power cut also persisted for several days.
Affected businesses are expecting serious economic consequences due to the power loss.
“We anticipate millions in damages to equipment and machinery and high losses in revenue,” said Alexander Schirp, chief executive of the Berlin and Brandenburg Business Association (UVB).
The situation is placing extreme strain on companies and shows the need for better protection for sensitive equipment, said Schirp.
“The power outage shows that our infrastructure is not adequately protected against attacks and accidents,” he said.
According to Berlin’s Senator for Economic Affairs Franziska Giffey, incendiary devices had been placed directly under the cables.
“The force with which continuous heat development and a continuous fire occurred was greater than the force that a ‘ball shell’ [an explosive pyrotechnic in spherical form] could have triggered,” Giffey told local broadcaster RBB on Saturday evening.
“A ‘ball shell’ would not have been able to damage our cables, given how they are secured,” she said.


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Berlin mayor denounces attack on German capital’s power grid as ‘terrorism’

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World

Europe

Mayor demands a federal manhunt for those who plunged 45,000 homes into darkness as the alleged perpetrators claim responsibility


Mayor demands a federal manhunt for those who plunged 45,000 homes into darkness as the alleged perpetrators claim responsibility.


Energy

Terrorism

Crime

Berlin mayor denounces attack on German capital’s power grid as ‘terrorism’

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Mayor demands a federal manhunt for those who plunged 45,000 homes into darkness as the alleged perpetrators claim responsibility

Mayor demands a federal manhunt for those who plunged 45,000 homes into darkness as the alleged perpetrators claim responsibility