Police are expanding the search for suspected electricity saboteurs in several federal states

Cologne/Remscheid/Dresden. After a series of sabotage actions in several federal states, the police have expanded their investigation and search for the suspected electricity saboteur. In a larger operation between Remscheid and Wuppertal, forces were looking for a suspicious person with a backpack. This was seen at a substation in Remscheid, Bergen. It was initially unclear whether this was the suspect we were looking for.

In connection with numerous attacks on the power grid in several federal states, they have been in operation in the greater Wuppertal area since the morning, said a spokesman for the Cologne police. A helicopter is also circling over the area between Remscheid-Lüttringhausen and Wuppertal-Ronsdorf.

The spokesman said that detailed information could not be given in order not to jeopardize the search efforts. However: “We now have measures underway throughout the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.” This also included covert measures.

There was also a major police operation at a substation in the Wesel district on the Lower Rhine. On Monday night, a fence was cut open at a substation. According to the police, traces were also secured during the day. And: “The system is currently being checked with the operator.”

A 60-member investigative group is currently evaluating extensive documents from the person being sought “for possible additional crime scenes throughout Germany,” it is said. The Cologne police reported that they are also in close contact with authorities in other federal states. For days, the authorities have been searching for a 48-year-old from Gevelsberg in the southern Ruhr area who is said to have committed the sabotage acts in North Rhine-Westphalia and Brandenburg.

There are letters claiming responsibility for crimes in Brandenburg and North Rhine-Westphalia that the investigating authorities consider to be authentic and assign them to the 48-year-old they are looking for. The authorities reported that a connection to the cases in Brandenburg and North Rhine-Westphalia was also being examined because of “the type of explosive devices”.

The suspect had tried everywhere to use self-made rockets to shoot a thin wire over the high-voltage lines and thus trigger a short circuit. In Bergheim, west of Cologne, several blocks of an electricity power plant were brought to a standstill, but there were no power outages. Such an attack on the power grid was also successful at Jänschwalde in Brandenburg.

After the sabotage actions in North Rhine-Westphalia and Brandenburg, additional self-made launching devices were discovered in the immediate area of ​​high-voltage lines in Saxony. The explosive devices were defused by special forces from the State Criminal Police Office. According to the authorities, the number of devices found in Saxony alone increased to 21.

According to the Wuppertal police, a private person reported the suspicious person with a backpack at the substation in Remscheid. It was still unclear several hours after the operation began whether this escaped person was the person being sought. “We will only know that when we meet the person, but that is not the case so far,” said the Wuppertal police spokesman. Several media outlets reported on the search operation.

It was also a larger operation on the Lower Rhine. On Monday night, a police patrol in Wesel noticed a hole in a fence at the substation. “We are now more aware of such facilities and are patrolling them more,” emphasized a police spokesman.

On Sunday there was a major operation in the Hambach Forest in the Rhenish lignite mining area near Cologne, which has long been occupied by climate activists. The suspect's camping truck had previously been found nearby. However, no evidence of the man was found.

There was an explosion in a substation in Berlin-Mitte, as a spokesman for the operator 50Hertz announced. Around 90 traffic lights in the capital were out. According to a company spokesman, however, there are currently some indications that a technical defect is the cause. The police also confirmed this after initial investigations.

After the incidents in Brandenburg and North Rhine-Westphalia, investigators have been publicly searching for the 48-year-old since Saturday with two photos. “The knowledge that is revealed in these letters is clear knowledge of the perpetrators,” said Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) on Friday. It is obviously a case of “climate terrorism” by a lone perpetrator.

Investigators found explosives in the suspect's apartment. A search is also underway for a bicycle that the man may have used. The police are hoping for information from witnesses.

In the letters of confession, the alleged perpetrator justified the attacks on the power grid with the fight against fossil fuels. “Generating electricity from fossil fuels is a crime,” says the letters, which are also available to the German Press Agency. Brown coal is still being mined and converted into electricity in all three affected federal states.