Sabotage attacks on German substations apparently linked to climate extremism

Germany’s interior minister, Alexander Dobrindt, is treating a series of attacks on power infrastructure as a possible case of “climate extremism,” but he cautioned that investigators have not yet established the full background.

Police in North Rhine-Westphalia were searching for a 48-year-old man from Gevelsberg on Friday. Two letters claiming responsibility for the attacks were considered authentic according to the current investigation. The letters criticized energy production based on fossil fuels, although authorities have not determined whether the suspect acted alone.

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Climate extremism

Police found “objects suspected of being explosives” during a search of the man’s apartment, NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul said. A special police unit later stormed a truck in a forest near Niederzier, about 100 kilometers away. The vehicle appeared to have been converted into a motorhome, but the suspect was not inside and may have escaped on foot. Reul said he “will not get far.”

The investigation follows attacks or suspected attacks near substations and power lines in Bergheim, near Cologne, Dormagen, and Jänschwalde in Brandenburg. A passer-by found a suspicious object near the Dormagen substation that may have been a launch device. Police also searched around the Weisweiler power plant near Aachen after finding several thin wires. The circumstances behind the incidents remain unresolved.

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He will not get far