Leftist activists' attack on electric lines disrupts power supply in Berlin

Amid heavy snow in the German capital and temperatures plummeting to below freezing, nearly 100,000 people were left without power for several days after an alleged left-wing arson attack on Berlin's power supply on Wednesday caused a major blackout, reports CNN. 

The activist group Vulkangruppe - or Volcano Group - claimed responsibility for the attack, citing the role that fossil fuels and AI play in accelerating the climate crisis.  Roughly 45,000 homes and more than 2,000 businesses in Berlin's wealthy southwestern districts were affected by the outage, which lasted more than four days. 

The outage is believed to be the longest in Berlin's postwar history.  The attack on Berlin's power supply occurred in the early hours of Saturday morning, when a fire broke out on a cable duct over the Teltow Canal, which runs through the city's south. The blaze damaged several high-voltage cables near Berlin's Lichterfelde power plant.

Authorities put the fire out, but not before power had been cut at around 6 a.m. The outage affected up to 45,000 households and 2,200 business spanning four districts in southern Berlin, including Nikolassee, Zehlendorf, Wannsee and Lichterfelde, according to Stromnetz Berlin, the operator of the city's electricity network. 

The attack left people without power and heating amid nighttime temperatures of -10 degrees celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit), disrupted overground train lines and hit mobile phone connections. 

The Vulkangruppe later claimed responsibility for starting the fire, in a letter sent to police. "We successfully sabotaged the gas-fired power station in Berlin-Lichterfelde," said the letter, which has been circulated online. 

This, the group said, resulted in power outages in Berlin's "affluent" neighborhoods. 

Vulkangruppe apologized to the less wealthy residents of southwestern Berlin in the letter, saying that the goal was to target the fossil fuel industry and the action was a "necessary measure against the expansion of fossil fuel-fired power plants" in Germany. 

>Agency