Police end search for suspected saboteur in Hambach Forest

After several attempted sabotage attacks on the German power grid, the police launched a large search for a suspect in the Hambacher Forest west of Cologne. It's about a 48-year-old who is said to have sent letters of confession.

According to information from WDR, the operation has now officially ended. After a final hole in the ground was checked, the emergency services were withdrawn, said police spokesman Christoph Gilles. There were up to 100 police vehicles on site. The officers combed through the dense undergrowth of the forest, and the tree houses were also in focus.

According to a new search call, the suspect could also be fleeing on a bicycle. The man has been wanted for days because of the sabotage operations. On Friday, officers found explosives in the suspect's apartment in Gevelsberg in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Converted truck stormed

Later, a special operations team stormed a truck converted into a mobile home in Niederzier at the Hambach opencast mine, which the wanted man is said to have used. But the man was not found.

The investigators published a search call on Saturday with two photos of the suspect. “The search is ongoing,” said a spokesman for the Cologne police in charge this morning. “We have received tips and we are following them up.”

Letter of confession with “knowledge of perpetrator”

The attempted acts of sabotage are concentrated in North Rhine-Westphalia, Brandenburg and most recently Saxony. Brown coal is still mined and converted into electricity in all three federal states. In letters that were received by several media outlets and signed with the 48-year-old's name, the sender claimed responsibility for the acts and justified the attacks by criticizing energy production using fossil fuels.

In the letters, the man took responsibility for attempted attacks on the power grid around the Jänschwalde and Schwarze Pumpe power plants in Brandenburg, and he also claimed responsibility for attacks on the power supply at Gohr, Bergheim-Rheidt, Dormagen and Weisweiler, all in North Rhine-Westphalia.

These letters of confession are considered authentic and contain knowledge of the perpetrators, as Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) and North Rhine-Westphalia's Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) said on Friday.

Hambacher Forest symbol for the fight against coal mining

For years, the Hambach Forest was the scene of protests against environmental destruction and coal mining. Since 2012, the forest area has been repeatedly occupied by activists. In 2018, the police cleared and destroyed numerous tree houses.