After the major power outage in Dresden, the police assume an accident with a normal balloon.
The power outage on Monday was triggered by a standard balloon that is used at weddings or children's birthdays, for example, police spokesman Thomas Geithner said on Tuesday at a joint press conference with the network operator SachsenEnergie.
The balloon had not been prepared and there was no letter of confession, said Geithner.
A resolution cannot be ruled out one hundred percent, but according to the current state of affairs, the police assume a coincidence.
On Monday afternoon, around 300,000 households in Dresden and the surrounding area had no electricity at times.
Companies and tram traffic were also affected.
When searching for the cause of the malfunction, the police found charred remains of a balloon.
At first it was unclear whether the metal-coated balloon that presumably caused the power failure had been controlled in a targeted manner or had accidentally reached the neuralgic point of the Dresden Süd feed-in substation.
The police had initially formed a management team after the first emergency calls were received, as the spokesman said. Because of the upcoming federal election, the ongoing trial against suspected left-wing extremists and several meetings in the city, it had to be considered whether the worst case could be assumed.
Metal-coated balloons - as they are also found at public festivals or fairs - had already caused damage in the past. In September 2017, a balloon got into the overhead line at Stuttgart Central Station and triggered a short circuit. This disrupted the S-Bahn traffic. In 2015, a helium balloon flew into the overhead line at the Hauptwache S-Bahn station in Frankfurt and also triggered a short circuit with an explosion. The S- and U-Bahn traffic had to be temporarily stopped completely.