{"id":226930,"date":"2026-01-04T13:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T13:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/226930\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T13:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T13:36:08","slug":"berlin-power-outages-after-left-wing-anarchist-attack-on-power-cables-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/226930\/","title":{"rendered":"Berlin power outages after left-wing anarchist attack on power cables \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thousands of Berliners<\/a> are facing power outages until Thursday after a left-extreme anarchist triggered a bomb attack on power cables in the German capital.<\/p>\n

Around 45,000 households and 2,000 firms were left in the dark \u2013 and many without heat \u2013 on a snowy Saturday night after a collective calling itself \u2018Volcano Group\u2019 claimed responsibility for the attack near a gas power station.<\/p>\n

The group, also linked to a 2024 attack on the Tesla plant near Berlin, said the latest intervention was an \u201cact of resistance\u201d against the ongoing \u201cgreed for energy … that is sucking dry, burning, maltreating, raping\u201d the planet.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0A \u20ac120 dinner for two in Beijing, Berlin, Damascus and Odesa? Our correspondents couldn\u2019t spend their moneyOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Berlin\u2019s governing mayor Kai Wegner said \u201cprotection of critical infrastructure was of the highest priority\u201d and that all was being done \u201cto restore energy as quickly as possible\u201d.<\/p>\n

Economics and energy minister Franziska Giffey conceded the repair work was \u201ccomplex\u201d and, after recent snowfall, \u201ccomplicated further by the bad weather and ground frost\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Sunday morning Berlin\u2019s electricity authority restored power to 7,000 households and 150 firms but, with five high-tension cables damaged, it will be Thursday before normal service is restored.<\/p>\n

As well as homes and businesses, the power outage hit traffic lights and the outer arms of the electric S-Bahn suburban rail service, requiring replacement bus services.<\/p>\n

\"VehiclesVehicles of Emergency workers stand on a street in Zehlendorf during a power outage in southern districts of Berlin. Photograph: Getty Images <\/p>\n

In a lengthy letter claiming responsibility, the \u2018Volcano Group\u2019 said the attack was a pushback against \u201cour addiction to small devices with \u201cWe gobble up the colourful pictures … and are losing contact with what seems normal to us,\u201d it wrote. \u201cWe are fearful of what is happening, burying ourselves deeper into screens.\u201d<\/p>\n

German antiterrorism authorities describe the Volcano Group as a left-extremist terrorist group and were studying a note on Sunday considered to be of \u201ccredible\u201d authenticity.<\/p>\n

Within hours of Saturday\u2019s blackout, emergency centres were set up across the Steglitz and Zehlendorf in town, community and sport halls, run by the local fire brigade, churches and the German Red Cross. Some visitors stayed for an hour, for soup and to charge their smartphones.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s only times like this you realise how dependent you are on your phone,\u201d said Miriam, a mother of two. \u201cWe had no mobile data, no maps, couldn\u2019t charge our phones and were really left to our own devices.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her husband Matthias said their neighbours were unable to get into their home.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have everything in a smart home network so not even the window shutters are working,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Elderly couple Birgit and Horst visited the Red Cross emergency facility in the Cole Sports Centre to warm up but decided to stay the night.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hadn\u2019t thought of doing that but they have camp beds and it was so terribly cold in our house,\u201d said Birgit. \u201cI\u2019ve never experienced anything like this in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands of Berliners are facing power outages until Thursday after a left-extreme anarchist triggered a bomb attack on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[292,42,43,1188,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-226930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-germany","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-tesla","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}