Police are investigating a possible sabotage: a major fire at several cables has led to blocking railway traffic in western Germany
The German police are investigating a fire caused at the railway cables in the west of the country as a possible act of sabotage. Traffic on the railway between Duisburg and Düsseldorf and other major cities was totally blocked.
Railway circulation was blocked in western Germany. Photo: Shutterstock
The German police are investigating a major incident that has affected the railway traffic in western Germany, a fire broke out on cables on the railway being considered a possible sabotage act.
The fire has seriously disturbed the traffic of trains in the Duisburg-Düsseldorf area, having effects on both local and long-distance travel between the big cities of Germany, including Berlin, Frankfurt and even the Netherlands, notes Agerpres.
The Düsseldorf Police Brigade has taken over the investigation, and its spokesman Raimund Dockter said that the authorities are currently excluding an accident and starting from a deliberate sabotage act.
As a result of this incident, several railway lines for shuttles have been affected, and traffic has undergone significant delays and deviations, putting pressure on the railway network of Deutsche Bahn (DB).
A DB official warned that the situation is unlikely to be resolved quickly, estimating that traffic will not be fully restored until Friday at noon. This event is not unique, and the police have previously investigated similar damages caused to railway cables, in a wider context of concern for critical infrastructures in Germany.
Similar incidents
A similar situation took place on October 8, 2022, when an incident interrupted railway traffic in northern Germany, and the investigation initially suggested an attempt to theft of copper cables.
Also, a fire in February this year, which affected the railway traffic around Berlin, was claimed by an extremist left group, who said that its goal was to sabotage the production from the Tesla factory in Grunheide.
The same group was responsible for several sabotage actions on the railway infrastructure in 2022, including the interruption of traffic between Hamburg and Bremen and between Hamburg and Berlin.
According to a manifesto posted on the left -handed left platform, the purpose of these attacks was to target “Capitalist routine” and destroy the railways as part of NATO military infrastructure.
Despite these claims, the police failed to identify any suspect about these sabotage acts, and the investigations are still in progress.
