Firefighters extinguished a blaze that spread to a power substation in central Berlin early Monday, while police separately investigated a possible break-in at another substation in western Germany, local media reported.
The fire broke out overnight at a construction site on Bissingzeile in Berlin’s Tiergarten district and spread to a nearby substation, according to a fire department spokesman cited by public broadcaster RBB. About 50 firefighters tackled the blaze.
Police sealed off a wide area as criminal investigators examined whether the fire was deliberately started or resulted from a technical fault.
Hours earlier, at around 10 pm local time (2000 GMT) on Sunday, police launched an operation at the Niederrhein substation in Wesel, North Rhine-Westphalia, operated by energy company RWE, Bild reported.
Officers found a hole cut in the security fence, indicating that unknown people had entered the site. A police helicopter circled the facility as officers searched the complex.
Police had not immediately determined whether any technical infrastructure had been damaged or tampered with.
Sabotage suspect remains at large
The incidents come as authorities search for a 48-year-old man from North Rhine-Westphalia suspected of a series of attempted sabotage attacks on Germany’s power network since last week.
Investigators issued a wanted notice with photographs on Saturday and appealed to the public for information. A major search in the Hambach Forest west of Cologne was called off on Sunday without locating the suspect, WDR reported.
Letters bearing the man’s name and sent to several newsrooms last week claimed responsibility for attempted attacks on power infrastructure near the Jaenschwalde and Schwarze Pumpe brown coal plants in Brandenburg, as well as sites in North Rhine-Westphalia, ARD reported.
The sender said the alleged attacks were motivated by opposition to fossil-fuel power generation.
Authorities have not established whether the Berlin fire or the suspected break-in in Wesel are connected to the earlier incidents.
