‘Malicious and targeted’ sabotage halts trains in northern Germany

BERLIN (Reuters) – Attackers cut vital cables to the rail network in two places, causing a nearly three-hour shutdown of all rail traffic in northern Germany on Saturday morning in what authorities called an act of sabotage, without specifying who it might be. responsible.

Transport Minister Volker Wessing told a news conference that the federal police had opened an investigation into the accident. “It is clear that this was a targeted and malicious act,” he said.

The turmoil immediately raised alarm bells after NATO and the European Union stressed last month the need to protect critical infrastructure after what they described as “sabotage” on Nord Stream gas pipelines.

“We can’t say much at the moment, it’s too early,” said a security source, who asked not to be named. The source said that an intense investigation into the incident has begun and there are a variety of possible reasons for this, ranging from simple cable theft – which was frequent at the moment – to a targeted attack.

Neither the Federal Police nor the Interior Ministry immediately responded to requests for comment.

“Due to the sabotage of cables indispensable to rail traffic, Deutsche Bahn was forced to halt rail traffic in the north this morning for nearly three hours,” state rail operator Deutsche Bahn said in a statement.

The DB had earlier given the reason for the network downtime as a technical issue with wireless connections. She added that the movement of trains was still erratic on Saturday afternoon after they were restored, warning of train cancellations and delays.

The disruptions affected rail services across the states of Lower Saxony and Schlossig-Holstein as well as the states of Bremen and Hamburg, with an indirect effect on international rail journeys to Denmark and the Netherlands.

Queues were quickly built up at major stations including Berlin and Hanover as departure boards showed many services were postponed or canceled. Station staff were seen trying to advise passengers as delays continued.

Reporting by Sarah Marsh. Additional reporting by Andreas Rink and Christian Rutger. Editing by Catherine Evans and David Holmes

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