Police vehicles and repair equipment at the scene to help repair damaged electricity cables at a bridge leading to the Lichterfelde power plant over Teltow Canal following an arson attack on January 4, 2026 in Berlin, Germany.
Omer Messinger | Getty Images News | Getty Images
A suspected arson attack has left tens of thousands of homes and businesses in Germany's capital without electricity in near-freezing temperatures.
A fire in southwest Berlin on Saturday prompted a major power outage, with around 45,000 households and 2,200 commercial entities across four districts affected, according to grid operator Stromnetz Berlin.
The cause was identified as a fire on a cable bridge over the Teltow Canal near the Lichterfelde power station, with several cables damaged as a result.
Approximately 10,000 households and 300 businesses in Berlin's Lichterfelde district have since had electricity restored, Stromnetz Berlin said, although 35,000 households and 1,900 businesses remain affected.
The grid company said power for all customers is not expected to be restored until Thursday afternoon, at a time when Berlin is experiencing snowy conditions and sub-zero daily temperatures.
Local officials have attributed the power outage to an arson attack from The Vulkangruppe (The Volcano Group), a left-wing extremist group.
The Vulkangruppe reportedly published a letter shortly after the attack, claiming responsibility for the incident. They said their actions were directed at the fossil fuel-based energy industry, citing the climate crisis and buildout of artificial intelligence infrastructure. CNBC has been unable to independently verify the letter.
"The contemptuous attack on our power grid was not left-wing extremism. That was left-wing terrorism, and that must be clearly stated as such," Iris Spranger, Berlin's interior affairs minister, said at a press conference on Monday.
"Here, collateral damage to the life and limb of people in #Berlin was deliberately accepted," Spranger said, according to a Google translation of her comments posted on X.
The access road to a closed petrol station is blocked due to a power failure. After a cable bridge caught fire, 50,000 households and 2,000 businesses in south-west Berlin lost power.
Picture Alliance | Picture Alliance | Getty Images
The power outage comes around four months after a suspected arson attack on power lines in southeast Berlin affected around 50,000 households.
Vulkangruppe previously claimed responsibility for an attack on the power supply of Tesla's gigafactory near Berlin in 2024. The incident forced Elon Musk's company to halt production for a brief period.
English (US) · 