Power has been fully restored to tens of thousands of homes and businesses in Berlin after a days-long blackout caused by left-wing extremists.
Around 45,000 households and 2,200 businesses were left without electricity from early Saturday, January 3rd after high-voltage cables were deliberately set on fire in the southwestern district of Steglitz-Zehlendorf. The outage forced schools and hospitals to close and raised concerns about the security of Germany’s energy infrastructure.
Berlin’s senator for economic affairs, Franziska Giffey, confirmed that all affected properties were reconnected to the grid by the afternoon of Wednesday, January 7th. The attack was claimed online by an outfit calling itself the Vulkangruppe (‘Volcano Group’), which authorities say is a known left-wing extremist organisation.
Interior officials described the incident as an act of left-wing terrorism and said the claim of responsibility was credible. Germany has recently warned of possible Russian-linked “hybrid attacks”—but the interior ministry said there was no evidence of foreign involvement in this case.
An 83-year-old woman died during the blackout after being found in her apartment and later taken to hospital. Federal prosecutors have now launched a terrorism probe into the attack, which is the latest in a series of sabotage actions previously attributed to the same group.
