At least 45,000 homes were left without electricity following a blackout caused by an attack on a power plant. The group that claimed the attack said that the target was the energy sector and apologized to the “most disadvantaged” who also ended up affected.
There are thousands of homes that have been without electricity for three days and thousands of people without communications and heating in the German capital. The blackout, caused by an arson attack, is leaving residents at the mercy of subzero temperatures without being able to turn on the heating.
Initially, the blackout affected 45 thousand homes and 2,200 companiesestimating-I know that around 100 thousand people have been affected. On Monday night, the city restored power to some neighborhoods, leaving 27,800 homes and 1,450 businesses in the southwest region of the German capital. nor energy.
O far-left activist group Vulkangruppe (Volcano Group) claimed responsibility for the attack justifying it with climatic reasons. The organization assumed to have sabotage”the Berlin-Lichterfelde gas power plant” last Saturday night, January 3rd, in a letter that is in the possession of the police and was published on the Internet on Sunday.
In the document, the organization guarantees that it was “a necessary measure against expansion” of this type of installation in Germany and “an act of self-defense and international solidarity with all those who protect the Earth and life“. The group nevertheless asked sorry to the most disadvantaged who are affected by sabotage.
“We expose the links between wealth, the imperialist lifestyle and the destruction of our basis of life, which we must all oppose”, the letter states.
Asking for the “most sincere apologies (…) to the less favored and vulnerable populations” affected that “nwere not the target of this action”, the far-left group appeals to “assistance to people in need of care and their familiesto the disadvantaged residents of these neighborhoods and to all those who feel isolated and oppressed by the situation”.
On the other hand, it makes clear that “compassion” of the organization towards “the owners of the area’s many mansions, real estate companies, embassies and other wealthy elitists is limited“.
“Os rich people and their self-centered, anti-social lifestyle are destroying the planet“, he adds.
Residents of Berlin, affected by the blackout, are beginning to question the fragility of the capital’s infrastructure and security, according to the newspaper .
“A country like Russia will be watching this closely to identify hotspots,” said Jürgen Eicher, a 56-year-old resident. “I would prefer it not to be so obvious.”
As a result of the attack, schools and daycare centers extended their New Year holidays. The city’s suburban train, S-Bahn, which serves as a vital link with other districts, was out of service until Mondaylimiting public transport to buses and the metro, which only worked because it operated using a different electrical network.
As authorities opened emergency shelters and other spaces where residents can warm up and recharge their cell phones and local hotels offered extra rooms at reduced rates for residents. As the power outage also affected mobile communications, the fire department set up eight emergency call centers where residents can call the police, ambulances or firefighters.
It is anticipated that be six days needed, that is, until Thursdayto restore full energy. A prediction by municipal authorities that shook public confidence in their ability to respond to attacks of this nature, according to the New York Times, which spoke to residents.
How did they do it and what happened next?
The group set fire to a suspension bridge that housed five electrical power transmission lines using incendiary devices under the cables.
In a press conference this Monday in the early afternoon, the senator for the Interior of Berlin, Iris Spranger, condemned the “inhumane attack” that put “human lives at risk in a deliberate and systematic way”, considering the hypothesis of calling the attack “left-wing terrorism”.
Berlin’s Senator for Economic Affairs and Energy, Franziska Giffey, had already asked for “federal assistance” in the investigation, so that the causes of the fire that caused the blackout could be clarified quickly.
“The question is: Are these groups just left-wing activists driven by ideology, or is there something more behind it? This needs to be investigated in depth”, he defended, speaking to rbb24 radio.
The mayor of Berlin, Kai Wagner, from the center-right Christian Democratic Union, assumed on Sunday that some of those affected will have to wait until Thursday for the service to be restored.
“It was a left-wing extremist group that, once again, attacked our infrastructure and, with that, put people’s lives at risk“, lamented Wagner, assuming it is “terrorism” and “not just arson or sabotage”.
Berlin convened a crisis team on sunday and declared state of emergencywhich allows the sending of assistance from the Armed Forces, among other measures. According to the German Press Agency (dpa), the state of North Rhine-Westphalia will send emergency generators.
Grupo Volcão has carried out several attacks in the Berlin and Brandenburg regions since 2011the most recent in March 2024, with the interruption of power supply to the Tesla factory in Grünheide.
Additionally, in September 2025, a power failure caused by a similar infrastructure attack left 45,000 people in the southeast of the capital without electricity for 60 hours. However, the impact was not as severe because temperatures were milder.
