Tens of thousands of homes in Berlin will remain without electricity for several days after power cables were severely damaged in a suspected arson attack, authorities said on Saturday.
The outage could also leave some residents without heating, as local district heating systems rely on electricity, at a time when snow blankets the German capital and temperatures are near freezing.
Emergency services were alerted early on Saturday after several high-voltage cables on a bridge near a power plant caught fire. Firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze, but about 45,500 households and 2,200 businesses in southwest Berlin lost power, grid operator Stromnetz Berlin said.
Electricity cut runs until Thursday
The scale of the damage means around 35,000 households are expected to remain without electricity until Thursday afternoon, city authorities said, adding that power should be restored to other affected areas by early Sunday.
“We are dealing with a particularly serious power outage affecting tens of thousands of households and businesses, including care facilities, hospitals, numerous social institutions and companies,” said Franziska Giffey, Berlin’s senator for economic affairs.
Stromnetz Berlin warned repairs would take “a very long time”, with local media reporting that cold weather was hampering efforts to lay new underground cables.
Investigating on suspicion of arson
Police deployed about 160 officers to the scene in the Lichterfelde district and said they were investigating on suspicion of arson.
Officers used vans equipped with loudspeakers to urge residents to stay with friends or relatives if possible, conserve mobile phone use and keep torches on hand.
Local train stations were also affected, with electronic information boards and ticket machines out of service, though trains continued to run.
Giffey said the outage was more severe than a similar incident in September, when a fire damaged electricity pylons and cut power to tens of thousands of households.
Police also suspected arson in that case, for which an unnamed anarchist group later claimed responsibility online.
Germany remains on high alert for sabotage targeting critical infrastructure, including from foreign actors such as Russia.
