This undated wanted poster handed out on September 6, 2026 by the Brandenburg Police shows a man suspected in connection with possible planned attacks on electricity substations across Germany. Photo by Handout / Brandenburg Police / AFP
Berlin: German police on Tuesday arrested a suspected militant climate activist over a spate of sabotage attacks on the power grid that had apparently aimed to disrupt power from coal-fired plants.
The man, partially named in German media as Daniel V., 48, had spent days on the run since the first attacks last Tuesday in Brandenburg and North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) states.
Police in the city of Cologne said Tuesday that officers had "apprehended the wanted 48-year-old suspect near the Weisweiler power plant" in NRW state.
"The man was carrying additional explosive devices at the time of his arrest but offered no resistance," they said in a statement.
"Police also discovered a tent set up in the undergrowth nearby that contained further explosive charges," which bomb squad experts were assessing, they said.
The attacks on the grid since last week followed a similar pattern, with firework-like rockets used to shoot wires across high-voltage cables in a bid to cause short circuits.
While they caused no major outages, power-generating units at some plants had to be temporarily taken off the grid.
Police commandos raided the suspect's home and his abandoned truck after he claimed the attacks in hand-written letters, but he remained on the run.
Explosives were found during the search of his apartment, officials said.
"We must assume that this is a case of climate extremism," Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt told journalists at the time.
NRW interior minister Herbert Reul said last week the letters had contained detailed descriptions of the attack plans and that "the author cites as his motive the fight against fossil fuels".
The minister stressed that "attacking critical infrastructure is a crime. There is no justification for this crime, no ideology that counts as an excuse."
Germany has recently faced a spate of attacks on its power grid, with far-left activists claiming responsibility in some cases.
The most serious hit was on Berlin in January, causing an electricity outage that left tens of thousands of homes without power for nearly a week in the middle of winter.
The far-left "Vulkangruppe" (Volcano Group) claimed responsibility for the arson attack on high-voltage cables that caused that blackout.
