German police report new grid sabotage attempt, Bild reports

An attempt has been made to short-circuit an electricity ​grid transformer south of Duesseldorf in western Germany, ​according to police, the newspaper Bild ‌reported on ​Friday, heightening a state of alert after two suspected sabotage attempts this week. Police received a letter claiming responsibility for the incident in Dormagen as ‌well as vandalism at a substation in nearby Bergheim that took 4,200 megawatts in generating capacity offline on Tuesday.

Germany has been the focus of European fears about the vulnerability of critical infrastructure this week. Allies rallied round ‌after Germany blamed a drone attack in August at Leipzig/Halle airport on Moscow as part of hybrid warfare ‌meant to intimidate and divide countries that have supported Ukraine since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. Russia has dismissed the allegations as baseless.

On Sunday, a closely watched election takes place in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, where the far-right, Russia-friendly Alternative for Germany (AfD) ⁠holds ​a commanding lead in surveys. Germany's ⁠Interior Ministry said it was "no coincidence" that such "hybrid attacks" were happening on the eve of the election.

Bild reported that a man had ⁠claimed responsibility for the Bergheim and Dormagen incidents in a handwritten letter, in which he also revealed his identity, but ​it was unclear whether he was the perpetrator. Cologne police, in the same region, told Reuters they ⁠had knowledge of a letter claiming responsibility, but declined to give further details while the investigation was under way.

A spokesperson for Chancellor ⁠Friedrich ​Merz said the number of attacks that had been foiled or been unsuccessful were "a sign of how our security measures work – and that they do work". In the other sabotage incident this week, ⁠devices carrying conductive material damaged power lines at one of the most critical high-voltage nodes in the eastern state ⁠of Brandenburg.

Separately on Friday, ⁠police in the northern town of Ganderkesee cordoned off a transformer station, citing suspicious circumstances, according to Bild and other local media. Reuters could not immediately reach police ‌for comment on the ‌incidents.