Germany probes suspected rail sabotage

BERLIN – German police are investigating a new suspected act of sabotage on a major railway line which disrupted traffic and has been claimed by a far-left group.

On the morning of July 10, technicians noticed a fire in a cable duct near a station in Leverkusen, a city close to Cologne, the police said in a statement published on the afternoon of July 11.

The material damage led to disruptions to Deutsche Bahn (DB) traffic on this heavily used route in North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous region in the country.

“Investigators currently assume that the fire was started deliberately,” the police added, as they appealed for witnesses.

In a letter published on the morning of July 11 on the far-left online platform Indymedia, a group calling itself “Kommando Angry Birds” said it was “responsible for the sabotage of the railway line north of Leverkusen.”

Already strained after decades of underinvestment, Germany’s rail network has seen acts of sabotage against it multiply in recent months, the vast majority of which remain unsolved.

Germany is on alert over attempted sabotage, disinformation campaigns and cyberattacks attributed in particular to Russia. AFP