Search continues for 48-year-old suspect in attacks on Germany’s power network

The search for the man suspected of attacking Germany’s power network continued on Monday, after a major police operation in the Hambach Forest near Cologne failed to locate him.

Police said they had found no clues to the 48-year-old at the forest. Officers also responded overnight to a substation in Wesel, on the Lower Rhine, after a patrol spotted a hole in a fence. No further evidence of a crime was found there, but police said they were increasing patrols around such facilities.

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We are now sensitized to these facilities and are patrolling them more frequently.

“We are now sensitized to these facilities and are patrolling them more frequently,” a police spokesman said. Authorities have also begun looking for a bicycle the suspect may have used. Police released two photographs of him from Gevelsberg in the southern Ruhr area on Saturday.

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Climate terrorism

The alleged sabotage has affected several states, including North Rhine-Westphalia, Brandenburg and, most recently, Saxony. All three still mine and burn lignite. Police found explosives in the suspect’s Gevelsberg apartment on Friday. Later, a special forces unit raided a truck near the Hambach open-cast mine in Niederzier that appeared to have been converted into a motorhome, but the wanted man was not inside.

The investigation centers on two letters claiming responsibility that were sent to several media organizations, including the German Press Agency. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said the information disclosed in them amounted to clear evidence that the writer knew details of the crimes. He said the motive was very likely “climate terrorism” carried out by a lone offender. One letter declared: “Electricity generation from fossil fuels is a crime.”

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Electricity generation from fossil fuels is a crime.