Germany is offering a €1 million reward for information leading to the arrest of suspected far-left militants whose arson attack caused a massive blackout in Berlin, the interior minister announced on Tuesday, January 27th.
The electricity outage left roughly 45,000 homes and 2,200 businesses without power for nearly a week in the middle of winter in the southwest of the German capital.
Police are hunting members of the far-left Vulkangruppe (“Volcano Group”), which claimed responsibility for the early January blackout in several online statements.
Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt on Tuesday vowed to “strike back,”
I think it’s appropriate to underscore the seriousness of the situation with a reward of this magnitude.
According to Germany’s BfV domestic intelligence agency, the group has been active since 2011 and is also believed to be behind a number of arson attacks in and around Berlin.
It claimed responsibility for two sabotage attacks targeting a Tesla electric car factory just outside Berlin.
Dobrindt said police would launch a publicity campaign to solicit tips and promote the reward, including leaflets and posters in Berlin’s subway system. He also vowed to put more resources into fighting left-wing extremism more broadly and urged greater police powers to use facial recognition technology and collect digital data.
