Sabotage attacks on the power grid: Another letter of responsibility found near Aachen

Berlin. After several explosive devices were found near high-voltage lines at a power plant near Aachen, the police found another letter of responsibility. The police said the content could not be communicated in more detail for tactical reasons. The investigation continues. According to police, the search for a 48-year-old from Gevelsberg, who is said to have carried out several sabotage attacks on the German power grid, has so far been unsuccessful.

The police had been deployed with numerous forces around the Weisweiler power plant in Eschweiler near Aachen since Monday afternoon and had intensively searched for the suspect and secured clues. After a tip about a suspicious person in the area around the power plant, launchers were found there. They were probably intended to trigger a short circuit on the nearby high-voltage lines.

In order to render the launchers harmless, defusers from the State Criminal Police Office arrived on Monday, a police spokesman said. For this reason, the federal highway 4 nearby was temporarily closed.

According to police, flashes and banging noises were heard during the search on Monday evening around 9 p.m. No damage has been discovered so far. Because the area could not be searched further due to the onset of darkness and the vegetation, the search would continue on Tuesday morning, it was said. In addition, riot police officers were requested. The Aachen Federal Police is also supporting the measures by using a drone with a thermal imaging camera.

In connection with the series of sabotage actions against the power grid in several federal states, the authorities have been searching for the 48-year-old for days without success. He is said to have tried to shoot a thin wire over the high-voltage lines with self-made rockets in several places in Brandenburg and North Rhine-Westphalia and thus trigger a short circuit.

In Bergheim, west of Cologne, several units of a 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. There are already 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.