US EditionLeft-Wing Militants Claim Berlin Power Plant Sabotage Attack
The Vulkangruppe claimed the arson as a protest against fossil fuels, leaving 35,000 households without power until Thursday amid freezing temperatures, officials said.
- On January 3, 2026, Stromnetz Berlin said about 45,000 households and 2,200 businesses in south-west Berlin lost power after a fire damaged cables on a bridge across the Teltow Canal.
- Police are investigating the blaze as possible arson after emergency services were alerted at 6.45am and deployed about 160 officers to the Lichterfelde site with criminal investigators present.
- Residents were warned heating systems may fail, urged to use phones sparingly and keep torches as loudspeaker vans alerted neighbourhoods; hospitals and care homes evacuated patients from two homes, while local train stations saw electronic signs fail.
- Stromnetz Berlin said it is trying to gradually restore power, but spokesman Henrik Beuster told AFP timing is unclear; a full restart needs new cables and is expected by Thursday afternoon, with some homes restored by early Sunday.
- Amid heightened concern about sabotage, Germany remains on high alert for infrastructure threats from foreign actors such as Russia, and the state security service may be involved depending on findings, recalling a September pylon arson affecting around 50,000 customers claimed by an unnamed group.
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The German capital declared the state of emergency, after arson on Saturday 3 January near a thermal power plant. An action claimed by the Vulkangruppe, to denounce the "energy thirst" that destroys natural resources.
Just a few weeks before the antifa terror in Berlin, which gave the city a historic blackout, the Berlin Court of Auditors had warned of serious deficiencies in civil protection. Nowhere else in the EU are anti-grassroots mismanagement and a policy against all the interests of its own citizens as obvious as currently in Berlin.A comment by Vanessa Renner The images from the German capital are shocking.
Tens of thousands of households in the snowy German capital are still without electricity, and some without heating. The widespread power outage was caused by a fire allegedly started by the far-left Vulkangruppe.
In the German capital Berlin, tens of thousands of families will be without power until Thursday after a fire damaged electrical cables. The left-wing extremist Vulkangruppe has claimed responsibility for the fire. But who or what is the Vulkangruppe? "A rather mysterious group that has recently started fires in Berlin," says correspondent Chiem Balduk.
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Bias Distribution
- 36% of the sources lean Left
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