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Damaged electricity pylon near the Tesla factory: was it a left-wing extremist attack?

Photo: Sebastian Gollnow / dpa

A group classified as left-wing extremist claims to be behind the power outage near the Tesla factory near Berlin.

According to a letter, the "volcano group" claimed responsibility for an "attack on the power supply" in protest against the US car manufacturer.

“We sabotaged Tesla today,” says the letter, whose authenticity the police are still checking.

In addition to some publicly discussed criticisms of the work, the reasons given included the rejection of “green capitalism”.

A burning electricity pylon led to a power outage in the region in eastern Brandenburg near Berlin on Tuesday morning.

The power outage caused a production stop at Tesla.

The Brandenburg police are currently assuming arson, and the State Security Office of the State Criminal Police Office has started the investigation.

The “volcano group” was already suspected of carrying out an arson attack on the power supply at the Tesla construction site in 2021.

At the time, she accused Tesla on the radical left-wing website Indymedia.org of being neither green, ecological nor social.

Woidke speaks of a “form of terrorism”

Brandenburg's Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke had strongly condemned the new alleged attack before the alleged letter of responsibility emerged.

"Attacks on our critical infrastructure are a form of terrorism," said the SPD politician.

He called for consistent action by the rule of law.

“If the suspicion of a terrorist attack is confirmed, the Federal Prosecutor General will have to take over the investigation,” said Woidke.

Brandenburg's Interior Minister Michael Stübgen (CDU) had previously spoken of a "perfidious arson attack" if the initial findings were confirmed.

“Here, thousands of people were cut off from basic services and put in danger,” said Stübgen.

The authors of the alleged letter of confession defend themselves against this accusation.

The aim of the sabotage was the “biggest possible blackout of the Gigafactory,” it says in the letter.

The authors claim: “We have ruled out any risk to our lives and those of other people.” Numerous households in the region were affected by the power outage.

According to the supplier Edis, the supply to the surrounding communities has been running again since late Tuesday morning.

The exception is the large industrial facility itself and a logistics center.

Edis experts are on site and are preparing to repair the damaged high-voltage pylon, it said.

The damage site is secured.

The repairs will begin after approval from the investigating authorities.

kko/dpa