Tens of thousands of homes in Berlin will remain without electricity until Thursday as authorities struggle to repair power cables seriously damaged in a suspected arson attack, officials have said. Some households may also be without heating as the outage has affected local systems at a time when the German capital is blanketed in snow and temperatures hover around freezing.
Emergency services were alerted early on Saturday that several high-voltage cables on a bridge near a power plant had gone up in flames. Firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze, but about 45,500 homes and 2,200 businesses in south-west Berlin districts were left without power, according to grid operator Stromnetz Berlin.
The extensive damage means roughly 35,000 households will be without electricity until Thursday afternoon, Berlin authorities said in a statement. Power should be restored to other homes by early Sunday. The local district heating system, which transports heat around a pipe network, is also affected as it is powered by electricity.
Berlin's senator for economic affairs, Franziska Giffey, described it as a particularly serious outage affecting tens of thousands of households and businesses, including care facilities, hospitals, and numerous social institutions. Stromnetz Berlin warned that repair work would take a very long time, with media reports saying cold weather was hindering efforts to lay new underground cables.
Police deployed about 160 officers to the Lichterfelde area and said they were investigating on suspicion of arson. Loudspeaker vans urged residents to stay with friends or relatives if possible, use mobile phones sparingly and ensure they had torches. Local train stations were affected, with electronic information signs and ticket machines not working, although trains were still running.
Giffey noted Saturday's outage was worse than one in September, when tens of thousands also lost power after a fire hit electricity pylons. Police suspected arson in that case too, and an unnamed anarchist group claimed responsibility online. Germany has been on high alert for sabotage activities directed at its infrastructure, including from foreign actors such as Russia.
