Suspect arrested over explosives placed on Germany’s power grid, believed to be climate extremist

German police have arrested a man accused of trying to trigger large-scale power cuts by attacking electricity facilities across the country. Daniel Pfau was detained near the Weisweiler power plant in North Rhine-Westphalia, according to dpa and other reports.

Police said Pfau did not resist and was carrying explosives at the time of his arrest. Investigators also recovered explosives that he had hidden in a forest. The arrest followed a major search operation after authorities obtained a European arrest warrant and searched areas where they believed he might be hiding.

Pfau had sent a handwritten letter bearing his real name to media outlets. In it, he described homemade explosive devices and attack locations, including information that had not previously been made public. Authorities used his statement that “Power generation using fossil fuels is a crime that causes indescribable suffering” to classify him as a climate extremist.

The targeted facilities all used fossil fuels, including lignite. Pfau allegedly installed dozens of projectile-shaped short-circuit devices at substations stretching from North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany to Saxony and Brandenburg in the east. Some came into contact with high-voltage transmission lines and disrupted power transmission, but the attacks did not cause a large-scale blackout.

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Power generation using fossil fuels is a crime that causes indescribable suffering.