Attacks on power lines: 21 explosive devices found and defused

Police in Saxony have found nine more homemade explosive devices near high-voltage power lines, bringing the number discovered in the state to 21.

Specialist officers from the Saxony State Criminal Police Office defused the devices in the immediate vicinity of transmission lines south of the Graustein substation, near Schleife in the Görlitz district. Police, prosecutors and the Görlitz police department continue to ask the public for help with the investigation.

Authorities had already announced on Saturday that 12 explosive devices had been found in the Lusatian lignite region near the Brandenburg border. Police and prosecutors said the devices were intended to cause damage to high-voltage lines by triggering a short circuit. No damage to the power network occurred, and officials said there was no danger to the public.

Investigators are also conducting an intensive search for a 48-year-old man suspected of carrying out sabotage operations against Germany’s power grid. The incidents have centered on North Rhine-Westphalia, Brandenburg and Saxony. Police in Brandenburg and North Rhine-Westphalia published a joint appeal with two photographs of the suspect and asked for information.

A large operation took place on Sunday in the Hambach Forest near Cologne, but officers found no trace of the man. On Friday, police found explosives at the suspect’s apartment in Gevelsberg, North Rhine-Westphalia. Later, a special police unit searched a truck in a forest near Niederzier that appeared to have been converted into a motorhome. The suspect was not there.