Berlin Mayor Calls Left-wing Arson Behind Massive Power Outage Terrorism Endangering Lives

Berlin- An arson attack claimed by a left-wing extremist group left tens of thousands of residents in the German capital without power in the middle of winter for several days. Saturday morning’s arson attack on critical power infrastructure in southwest Berlin knocked out power to nearly 50,000 homes and businesses, and renewed scrutiny of a long-running sabotage campaign by the left-wing “Vulkangruppe.”

The group claimed responsibility for the fire, which destroyed several high-voltage cables near the Lichterfelde thermal and power plant and triggered one of the most serious power outages the capital has seen in years.

According to Stromnetz Berlin, Berlin’s power grid operator, power was cut to 45,000 homes and more than 2,000 businesses in four districts of southern Berlin.

The power outage also led to a loss of heating and hot water in many homes, with temperatures falling well below freezing in Berlin.

While engineers restored power to parts of the network on Monday, around 30,000 homes were still offline as technicians struggled to replace damaged underground cables buried in the frozen ground. The power operator said it did not expect power to be fully restored until Thursday.

In a lengthy statement posted online and described as credible by police, the Vulkangruppe said it had deliberately targeted wealthy neighborhoods, to “cut off the juice of the ruling class”.

The group presented the attack as an act of protest against the use of fossil fuels and the increasing growth of fossil fuels. power demand created by AI data centerswhich he says has accelerated climate change and expanded mass surveillance. The statement included an apology to less wealthy residents affected by the outage, but it expressed no sympathy for wealthy homeowners without power.

The impact of the attack quickly spread beyond the areas the group had said it wanted to target. Hospitals, elderly care homes and residents of high-rise buildings who rely on elevators have been affected. Mobile phone networks failed in some districts and commuter rail services were disrupted. Police used loudspeakers mounted on patrol cars to inform residents, and some schools delayed reopening until after the Christmas and New Year holidays.

Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner condemned the arson attack as an “absolutely unacceptable” act of terrorism. He warned that attacks on energy infrastructure were putting lives at risk and straining the city’s emergency services.

“These are not childish pranks, but rather professional criminals who attacked these power grids,” Wegner said Monday in an interview with German public broadcaster RBB. “This is not just arson or sabotage. This is already terrorism. This is a far-left group that has once again attacked our infrastructure and in doing so has also endangered people’s lives, elderly people who may need ventilators, families with young children, and we must now stop these perpetrators.”

Franziska Giffey, Berlin’s state senator for economics, energy and public enterprises, called on the federal government to contribute to the criminal investigation into the extremist group’s actions, which she called an attack on “our free society.”

“It has to be federal assistance in the investigations,” she said. “The question is whether these are simply left-wing militant groups acting on ideological grounds, or whether there are other reasons behind it.”

Security officials said the arson fit a pattern that has been developing for more than a decade. According to assessments by Berlin authorities and German intelligence services, groups using the Vulkangruppe name or closely related labels are responsible for a series of attacks on power, rail and communications infrastructure since around 2011.

Early incidents included arson attacks on railway and electricity cables in Berlin that disrupted commuter traffic and caused costly damage. In 2018, a fire on power lines cut power to thousands of homes and businesses in the capital, while subsequent attacks targeted research and communications facilities linked to digital infrastructure.

The group has attracted more attention in recent years thanks to increasingly high-profile actions. In March 2024, she claimed responsibility for the arson of a high-voltage pylon temporarily supplying electricity to the Tesla Gigafactory in Berlin-Brandenburg. shutdown of production at the factory.

In September, another arson attack on power cables in southeastern Berlin caused a 60-hour power outage affecting tens of thousands of residents, believed to be the longest power outage in the city since World War II. This has been widely attributed to the same extremist collective, although not explicitly claimed by the Vulkangruppe.

Authorities warn that such attacks require little specialist knowledge but can have dramatic and far-reaching consequences, revealing the vulnerabilities of densely interconnected urban infrastructure.

The latest blackout has intensified calls for stronger protection of power grids and plans for faster emergency responses to such incidents.