German police defuse 21 explosive devices on power lines during multi-state sabotage probe

Discovery of explosive devices in Saxony

Police and bomb disposal specialists in Saxony have recovered and defused nine additional homemade explosive devices placed near high-voltage power lines south of the Graustein substation near Schleife, in the Görlitz district. The State Criminal Police Office of Saxony and the Dresden Public Prosecutor's Office confirmed on Monday that the new find brings the total number of explosive devices secured in the state to 21. Specialists from the State Criminal Police Office defused all nine devices at the scene. Investigators had previously found 12 explosive devices on Saturday across the Lusatian lignite mining area along the border with Brandenburg. Security forces originally deployed to the Bärwald and Graustein electrical substations on Friday following initial witness tips, maintaining search operations through Sunday. Dresden prosecutors stated that the power grid suffered no physical damage and that local residents were not placed in immediate danger.

These were intended to cause damage to electrical high-voltage lines through a short circuit.

Coordinated grid sabotage across three states

The discoveries in eastern Saxony follow a sequence of sabotage attempts against German electrical infrastructure that began on Tuesday of the preceding week. Attackers targeted substations near Jänschwalde in Brandenburg and Bergheim in North Rhine-Westphalia, before investigators discovered additional suspicious devices in Dormagen and Weisweiler. According to findings released by police forces and grid operators, the perpetrators used specialized launch apparatuses to fire conductive material into overhead high-voltage cables with pyrotechnic projectiles to induce short circuits. These detonations forced protective shutdowns of multiple power plant units at Bergheim and Jänschwalde, though overall regional electricity supplies remained stable throughout the incidents. State prosecutors are pursuing criminal investigations for unconstitutional sabotage across the affected regions, while Brandenburg authorities opened a probe regarding the suspected formation of a terrorist organization.

Nationwide manhunt for 48-year-old suspect

German law enforcement agencies are conducting an intensive public manhunt for a 48-year-old man from North Rhine-Westphalia suspected of orchestrating the sabotage campaign across the three states. The suspect claimed responsibility for several of the attacks in written confession letters, stating that the sabotage was intended as a protest against fossil-fuel energy production and lignite mining. Police officers searched the suspect's residence in the North Rhine-Westphalian town of Gevelsberg on Friday, uncovering and seizing suspected explosive materials. Later that same day, a tactical special operations command raided a truck converted into a motorhome in a forest in Niederzier, roughly 100 kilometres from Gevelsberg, but officers did not locate the suspect.

Search operations in Hambach Forest

Federal and state police located the suspect's motorhome on Friday in a parking area near the Hambach Forest in western North Rhine-Westphalia. On Sunday, security services mounted a large-scale search operation using aerial drones across the forest terrain near Cologne, though the deployment concluded without finding the man. Brandenburg police subsequently issued an advisory stating that the 48-year-old suspect might now be travelling on a bicycle. The Central Counterterrorism Office of Saxony at the Dresden Public Prosecutor's Office, the Saxon State Criminal Police Office, and the Görlitz Police Directorate have published two photographs of the 48-year-old and continue to ask the public for relevant tips.