Rail travel remains active in North Rhine-Westphalia, yet another crime incident occurs in Saxony-Anhalt
In a series of unexpected incidents, railway services in North Rhine-Westphalia and Saxony-Anhalt have faced disruptions due to deliberate cable fires.
In North Rhine-Westphalia, the central North-South axis of Deutsche Bahn was paralyzed by cable fires in Düsseldorf. The police suspect a left-wing extremist group, "Commando Angry Birds", to be behind the arson attack. This group, known as a left-wing extremist "participation campaign", claimed responsibility via Indymedia, stating their motive was opposition to the industrial system, aiming to disrupt it and supposedly revert society to pre-industrial times. Over 60 meters of cables were destroyed in these attacks, causing disruption to more than 620 trains daily, including ICE trains and airport connections.
Authorities, including North Rhine-Westphalia’s Interior Minister Herbert Reul, explicitly linked these sabotages to left-wing extremist motives operationalized through coordinated arson attacks on key rail infrastructure. The repairs on five cables, totaling around 100 meters, were elaborate and lasted into the night. However, the authenticity of the statement from "Commando Angry Birds" is still being checked.
Train traffic in North Rhine-Westphalia has resumed after the cable fires, with the busy Duisburg-Düsseldorf route reopened by Deutsche Bahn.
In a separate incident, a cable fire was discovered on a route near the Webau district of Hohenmölsen in Saxony-Anhalt. Initial investigations suggest that this fire was also deliberately set and affected a freight traffic route for coal transports. However, the investigation details in Saxony-Anhalt are not as comprehensive as those in North Rhine-Westphalia, and no specific information on Saxony-Anhalt sabotage or its connection to these events is currently available.
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The arson attacks have impacted tens of thousands of travelers, including commuters and vacationers, some of whom were on their way to Düsseldorf Airport. Hundreds of long-distance and regional trains traveling through the Ruhr area were affected by the cable fires.
As the investigations continue, authorities are actively searching for further damages along the implicated railway corridors and continuing repair work with expected disruptions lasting until the next morning after the attacks.
The investigations regarding the cable fires in North Rhine-Westphalia and Saxony-Anhalt suggest that they might be linked to left-wing extremist groups, with "Commando Angry Birds" being a suspected culprit in the former. The disruptions caused by these arson attacks on key rail infrastructure have impacted not only the general-news scene but also crime-and-justice matters, as hundreds of travelers, including commuters and vacationers, have been affected.
