Cologne, Sept 7. (dpa/GNA) – German police were continuing their search on Sunday for a 48-year-old suspected saboteur, following attacks on the country’s power grid.
“The manhunt is ongoing,” a spokesman for Cologne police, who are responsible for the investigation, said. “We have received leads and are following them up.”
Investigators published a wanted notice on Saturday, featuring two photographs of the suspect, who is from Gevelsberg in the southern Ruhr region.
The attempted acts of sabotage have focused on the states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Brandenburg and, most recently, Saxony. Lignite is still being mined and used to generate electricity in all three states.
On Friday, officers found explosives at the suspect’s home in Gevelsberg. A special police unit later stormed a truck near the Hambach open-pit mine in Niederzier that appeared to have been converted into a motorhome.
The wanted man was not found there. The manhunt follows two letters claiming responsibility sent to several media outlets, including dpa. “The knowledge revealed in these letters is clearly the knowledge of the perpetrator,” Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said.
On the likely motive, Dobrindt said it was highly likely that the attacks were “climate terrorism” by a lone actor. One of the letters states: “Generating electricity from fossil fuels is a crime.”
GNA