Bild reports third German grid sabotage attempt as state election looms

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. Cologne police, in the same region, told Reuters they had knowledge of 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. They declined to give ‌further details while the investigation was under way.

Bild reported that a man had claimed responsibility for both incidents in a handwritten letter, in which he also revealed his identity, but it was unclear whether he was the perpetrator. 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. 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 town of ⁠Ganderkesee near Bremen found the ⁠door to a control enclosure at a transformer station open at 3 a.m., and searched the area with a helicopter and dogs.

The facility was undamaged and nobody was found ‌but an investigation was ‌continuing, police said.