BERLIN, Germany (LifeSiteNews) — A left-wing extremist group has claimed responsibility for an attack on the power grid that caused a massive blackout in Berlin.
On Saturday morning, around 45,000 homes and 90,000 people in southwest Berlin were without electricity after perpetrators set a fire on a power line supplying a gas power plant in the Lichterfelde district.
During the cold and snowy weather in Berlin, many households were without power and heating for days. According to BILD, the 97-year-old Ingeborg Esser was among those who had to sleep in a heated gym because her apartment was too cold.
In a letter published online on Sunday, the left-wing extremist “Vulkangruppe” (Volcano group) confessed to carrying out the attack in the name of saving the climate.
The group described the attack as an “action for the common good.” The State Criminal Police Office told the German news outlet Tagesspiegel that it considers the letter to be authentic. The Vulkangruppe, founded in 2011, has also carried out other acts of eco-terrorism in recent years, including two attacks on the Tesla Gigafactory in Grünheide, located to the east of Berlin.
“We successfully sabotaged the gas power plant in Berlin-Lichterfelde last night,” the letter stated. “The attack on the gas power plant is an act of self-defense and international solidarity with all those who protect the earth and life.”
The group, apparently motivated by the belief of impending doom due to the “climate crisis,” said, “There were power outages in the wealthier districts of Wannsee, Zehlendorf, and Nikolassee.“
”Power outages were not the goal of the action, but rather the fossil fuel industry,” the group claimed. “We apologize to the less affluent people in southwest Berlin.”
However, they added, “Our sympathy for the many villa owners in these neighborhoods is limited.”
The Vulkangruppe repeatedly blamed “the rich” for allegedly destroying the planet.
A prolonged power outage affecting private households was “neither intentional nor calculated,” the group wrote.
“We are also trying to put an end to species extinction” and the “exploitation of the earth,” the left-wing extremist group said.
According to Tagesspiegel, the operator Stromnetz Berlin expects that the power supply in the districts of Nikolassee, Zehlendorf, and Wannsee will remain interrupted until Thursday.
Berlin’s mayor Kai Wegner, from the Christian Democrats (CDU), said on Sunday, “This is not just arson or sabotage. This is terrorism.”
“We will place a high priority on prosecuting this crime. We want to catch these perpetrators,” Wegner stated.
“It was a left-wing extremist group that once again attacked our infrastructure and thus also threatened the lives of people, of elderly people who may need ventilators, of families with small children.”
The Vulkangruppe also claimed responsibility for an attack on Berlin’s power grid in September that caused a three-day power outage in Adlershof, in the district of Treptow-Köpenick.
