Thousands of residents in southwest Berlin remained without electricity and heating on Monday, as snowfall continued and temperatures dropped, following an attack targeting a cable bridge over the weekend that caused a widespread power outage.
Stromnetz Berlin, the company operating the electricity grid, said power has been restored to around 14,000 households out of the 45,000 initially affected, warning that full restoration could take until Thursday.
The outage forced the closure of some schools and kindergartens on the first school day after the Christmas holidays, while hospitals were compelled to operate on temporary emergency generators. Many nursing homes are still suffering from power cuts.
Relief organizations, in cooperation with fire brigades, have set up temporary shelters to assist those affected. Around 2,200 businesses were also impacted by the outage, with only about 500 having been reconnected to the power grid so far.
German authorities confirmed that a message claiming responsibility for the attack, published online after the incident, appears to be authentic. In the message, a left-wing group known as Vulkan Gruppe (Volcano Group) stated that the attack targeted the fossil fuel industry. The group said the attack caused power outages in wealthier areas such as Wannsee, Zehlendorf, and Nikolassee, before concluding the message with an apology to the less affluent residents of southwest Berlin.