Overview
- Police arrested a 48-year-old suspect near the Weisweiler power plant on Tuesday and a court has placed him in pretrial detention under a warrant from the Staatsanwaltschaft Cottbus.
- Investigators seized explosives, several homemade rocket launch devices, a tent rigged with charges and multiple confession letters that authorities regard as authentic.
- Authorities say the attacker used self-built pyrotechnic rockets to fire conductive material or thin wire onto high-voltage lines to cause earth faults, and at least two such strikes produced short circuits that put individual power-plant blocks out of service without triggering nationwide blackouts.
- The arrest followed a large police dragnet that included cordons, searches of the Hambacher Forst, temporary closure of the A4 motorway, drone and bomb-squad deployments, and public appeals for camera footage and eyewitness tips.
- Prosecutors have opened investigations for causing a bomb explosion, disruption of public utilities and related offenses, and officials say evidence currently points to a likely lone actor while inquiries continue into motive, possible accomplices and wider security gaps.