Police operation underway near Remscheid-Wuppertal substation amid sabotage investigation

A major police operation was underway near an electricity substation between Remscheid and Wuppertal as authorities continued searching for a suspected saboteur linked to attacks on power networks in several German states.

Police in Cologne said the operation had been running since the morning as part of search measures. Officers in Wuppertal said someone carrying a backpack had been reported near a substation in Remscheid. They could not confirm whether the person was the 48-year-old man sought for days in connection with sabotage incidents in North Rhine-Westphalia and Brandenburg.

A helicopter circled over the area between Remscheid-Lüttringhausen and Wuppertal-Ronsdorf. Police also mounted a larger operation on Monday at a substation in Wesel, on the Lower Rhine.

Authorities accuse the wanted suspect of trying to fire homemade rockets carrying a thin wire over high-voltage lines, apparently to trigger a short circuit. The incident disabled several blocks of a power plant in Bergheim, between Düsseldorf and Cologne, although it did not cause power cuts. A similar attack on the grid succeeded near Jänschwalde in Brandenburg. In Saxony, investigators also found other homemade launching devices close to high-voltage routes.