Possible left-wing extremist involvement investigated
The past few days have seen repeated attacks on the railway lines between Duisburg and Düsseldorf, causing significant disruptions on a key rail connection. These attacks, involving deliberate fires set on critical infrastructure, have been referred to as sabotage and vandalism by police and Deutsche Bahn.
The fires paralyzed the Duisburg-Düsseldorf line on Thursday, with numerous train cancellations and delays occurring as a result. The line, which handles over 620 passenger trains daily, has been closed since then. The German railway company expects repairs to be completed by midnight, with test runs to follow, allowing regular service to resume in time for the early Saturday morning start.
If these attacks are confirmed to be left-wing extremist motivated, it would mark the second time such an attack has occurred on the same route between Düsseldorf and Duisburg, following a similar incident in 2018. Authorities have not yet disclosed the specific left-wing extremist group believed to be responsible for these attacks, but the "Kommando Angry Birds" is known to the authorities as a left-wing extremist campaign.
The damage caused by the fires was extensive, with five thick cables, each 20 meters long, destroyed and needing to be replaced. The cables controlled switches and signals near Düsseldorf, causing disruptions in both local and long-distance traffic. The arson attacks affected ICE lines to Berlin and Frankfurt am Main, connections to North Germany, South Germany, and the Netherlands, as well as many local lines, including travel to Düsseldorf Airport.
Many passengers were left stranded at the main stations in Duisburg and Düsseldorf as a result of the attacks. To mitigate the disruptions, the railway company has set up a bus shuttle service and rerouted long-distance traffic via Dortmund and Wuppertal. Construction work on a parallel freight line in Duisburg-Wedau was also temporarily suspended to handle some of the traffic on that route.
NRW Transport Minister Oliver Krischer has decried the "enormous damage" caused by the attacks and vowed a thorough investigation. The police are investigating the case as sabotage, and the state security department is in charge of the investigation. As of early August 2025, the investigations are ongoing.
Before the G20 summit in Hamburg in 2017, there were repeated attacks on railway lines by left-wing extremists. It appears that this is not an isolated incident, but a pattern of disruptions targeting the railway system. The authorities are working diligently to identify and apprehend those responsible for these attacks and bring them to justice.
- The repeated attacks on the Duisburg-Düsseldorf railway line, labeled as sabotage and vandalism by police and Deutsche Bahn, extend beyond simple disruptions; they are now linked to left-wing extremist politics, echoing similar incidents in 2018.
- The ongoing investigations into the arson attacks on the Duisburg-Düsseldorf railway line unveiled that they fall under the domain of crime-and-justice, with the authorities focusing on identifying and apprehending the specific left-wing extremist group, the "Kommando Angry Birds."
