Power Outage Hits Berlin, Police Suspect Arson

Berlin: Tens of thousands of homes were left without electricity in Berlin on Saturday after power cables were damaged by a fire police suspect was an arson attack.

Emergency services were alerted at 6:45 am (0545 GMT) that several cables on a bridge near a power plant in the German capital had gone up in flames.

Firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze but about 45,000 households and 2,200 businesses in districts in southwest Berlin were left without power, according to grid operator Stromnetz Berlin.

Spokesman Henrik Beuster told AFP that the operator was "trying to gradually restore power" but when it would be back for everyone "is still unclear".

Police said in a post on X they had deployed about 160 officers to the site in the Lichterfelde area and were "investigating on suspicion of arson".

They warned affected residents that heating systems might not work due to the outage, urged them to use mobile phones sparingly and to ensure they have torches at hand.

Authorities also suspected arson when a blaze hit electricity pylons in Berlin in September, causing a widespread outage.

In that case, an unnamed anarchist group posted a claim of responsibility online for starting the blaze.

Germany has been on high alert for sabotage activities directed at its infrastructure, including from foreign actors such as Russia.

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