Police arrest suspect in Germany power grid attacks after dayslong search

BERLIN -- Police arrested a suspect Tuesday in connection with a series of attacks on power distribution systems across Germany which had led to a massive, dayslong search.

A 48-year-old man was arrested near a power plant in Weisweiler, in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

The man, whose name and nationality were not given in line with German privacy rules but has been widely identified by local media as Daniel V., was in possession of explosives and offered no resistance at the time of his arrest, Cologne police said in a statement.

When the first acts of sabotage took place early last week at a substation near the Jänschwalde coal-fired power plant in Brandenburg in northeastern Germany, and then hours later, a short circuit knocked power lines out of service at the Bergheim power substation near Cologne, top security officials in both states raised alarm and said they couldn't exclude that the attacks were committed by foreign powers.

The incidents took place as the country was on high alert after the government blamed Russia for an attempted attack at Leipzig/Halle Airport on Aug. 4 using a drone laden with explosives.

However, German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said Friday that the acts were believed to have been committed by a single activist in connection with climate extremism.

In addition to the first sabotage attacks near Jänschwalde and Bergheim, the man is alleged to have attempted, at several locations in North Rhine-Westphalia, and the eastern states of Brandenburg and Saxony, to use homemade rockets to shoot a thin wire across high-voltage power lines, thereby causing a short circuit.

Most recently on Monday police discovered several launch devices on a high-voltage power line near the Weisweiler plant — very close to the spot where police were able to arrest the man. Investigators also found a letter there claiming responsibility — in addition to several other letters they had found at other locations before, German news agency dpa reported.

In the letters, the man justified the attacks on the power grid as part of the fight against fossil fuels. Lignite is still being mined and used to generate electricity in all three of the states where the man allegedly committed or tried to commit attacks on power plants.

Police said Tuesday that near the place where they arrested the man, they also found a tent set up in the underbrush nearby, which contained additional explosive charges.

The items are currently being examined by a bomb disposal expert from the North Rhine-Westphalia State Criminal Police Office.

An arrest warrant had been issued earlier for the 48-year-old by the Cottbus Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Officers were at the scene in Weisweiler Tuesday to secure evidence and check whether any additional, as yet undiscovered, detonation devices have been set up in the surrounding area, police said.