Police vehicles and on-site repair equipment help repair damaged power lines on the bridge leading to the Richterfelde power plant over the Teltow Canal after an arson attack in Berlin, Germany on January 4, 2026.
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A suspected arson attack left tens of thousands of homes and businesses without power in the German capital in near-freezing temperatures.
A fire in southwestern Berlin on Saturday caused a massive power outage, affecting around 45,000 homes and 2,200 commercial establishments in four districts, according to power grid operator Stromnets Berlin.
The cause was determined to be a fire on a cable bridge over the Teltow Canal near the Richterfelde power station, resulting in damage to several cables.
Power has since been restored to around 10,000 homes and 300 businesses in Berlin’s Richterfelde district, but 35,000 homes and 1,900 businesses remain affected, Stromnetz Berlin said.
The transmission company said power was not expected to be restored to all customers until Thursday afternoon due to snow in Berlin and daily below-freezing temperatures.
Local authorities blamed the power outage on arson by the left-wing extremist group Vulcangruppe (Volcano Group).
According to reports, Valkangruppe released a letter immediately after the incident, claiming responsibility for the incident. They said their actions were directed at the fossil fuel-based energy industry, citing the climate crisis and building artificial intelligence infrastructure. CNBC has not been able to independently verify the letter.
“The insulting attack on our power grid was not left-wing extremism. It was left-wing terrorism and it must be clearly stated as such,” Berlin’s Interior Minister Iris Spranger said at a press conference on Monday.
“Collateral damage to the lives and limbs of the people of #Berlin was deliberately tolerated here,” Spranger said, according to a Google translation of her comment posted on X.
The access road to the gas station is closed due to a power outage. A cable bridge fire has left 50,000 homes and 2,000 businesses in southwest Berlin without power.
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The power outage comes about four months after a suspected arson attack on power lines in southeastern Berlin affected some 50,000 households.
Vulcan Group previously claimed responsibility for the attack on the power supply. Tesla”The incident forced Elon Musk’s company to suspend production for a short period of time.
