In the case of the serious sabotage of rail traffic, the state security at the Berlin State Criminal Police Office took over the investigation.
Although it cannot be ruled out that there is a political background, investigations are being carried out in all directions, a police spokeswoman said on Sunday of the German Press Agency. The “Spiegel” had previously reported.
On Saturday, unknown persons destroyed important Deutsche Bahn communication cables in Berlin and also in North Rhine-Westphalia, causing chaos. Rail traffic in northern Germany was largely at a standstill for hours.
Suspicion of a targeted attack for sure
There is no official information on the possible perpetrators. However, it seems certain that it was a targeted attack. “We have a crime scene in Berlin-Hohenschönhausen,” said a spokesman for the Berlin Federal Police Directorate of the German Press Agency.
“Another is in North Rhine-Westphalia.” From security circles it was said that so-called fiber optic cables were deliberately damaged in Berlin and in Herne in North Rhine-Westphalia. The backup system also failed.
Expert: Russia could be mastermind
Security expert Peter Neumann considers a Russian attack on the critical infrastructure in Germany to be conceivable. “Russia has an interest in causing panic in Europe and signaling that it can paralyze life very violently,” the researcher told RTL.
It takes significant knowledge to attack these nodes. “It probably wasn’t amateurs or individuals, it was something done by professionals.”
However, Neumann raises concerns: “But of course there is no clear evidence. That’s why you have to be careful. At the moment it’s still a theory.”
The bad news for travelers was on Saturday morning: “There are currently no long-distance travel options from/to Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony in/from the direction of Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe, Berlin and NRW.” Specifically, for example, all ICE traffic between Berlin, Hanover and North Rhine-Westphalia was stopped, as the railway company announced on its website. Countless passengers were stranded at the major train stations. Long queues formed at information desks.
Alternative connections completely overcrowded
International connections were also affected. So no IC trains ran between Berlin and Amsterdam. IC trains from Copenhagen terminated at the Danish-German border in Padborg. Some regional trains also came to a standstill.
As an alternative, the company suggested travelers to use long-distance connections with a change in Erfurt and Frankfurt am Main. “Please understand that the trains that are still running sometimes have a very high number of passengers,” it said.
Many who wanted to travel from Berlin to North Rhine-Westphalia, for example, followed the train’s recommendation and took the detour with a change in Frankfurt. The result was completely overcrowded trains, as a dpa reporter from the ICE 934 reported on the journey to Frankfurt. “No getting through in the aisles because everything is blocked with passengers sitting or standing there,” he said.
In the course of the morning, the railways reported that the disruption had been rectified, but that there could still be impairments. Since the start of operations on Sunday morning, there have been no more impairments in long-distance traffic, said a spokesman for Deutsche Bahn. “Everything back to normal.”
When asked what the act of sabotage could have looked like in concrete terms, the spokesman said: “The investigation is still ongoing, so we are not commenting on it. I ask for your understanding.”
