German police launch major raid against left-wing arson suspects

Six months after a suspected left-wing extremist attack on the power supply of a Berlin technology park that left thousands without power and produced multi-million euro damages, police carried out raids against the suspects, prosecutors said on Tuesday.

Apartments and other premises in 17 locations in the capital and in the states of Brandenburg, Hamburg and North Rhine-Westphalia were searched on Tuesday morning, the Berlin public prosecutor's office said.

The attack was directed against a science park in Berlin's Adlershof neighbourhood, which is home to numerous technology centres as well as several departments of Berlin's Humboldt University, according to a text published on the left-wing platform Indymedia and signed by "some anarchists."

"Police are on duty on behalf of the Berlin General Public Prosecutor's Office in connection with the arson attack near Adlershof in September last year," a spokesman for the Berlin General Public Prosecutor's Office said.

In Berlin, police were searching 14 properties.

"Today's searches show that we pursue every lead with the highest priority," the head of Berlin's interior department, Iris Spranger, said.

"Anyone who attacks our critical infrastructure attacks the security of our entire city. We will not accept that."

Hundreds of police officers deployed

A total of 500 police officers were deployed. Masked officers were standing in front of some apartment houses in Berlin on Tuesday morning which police said were associated with the left-wing scene.

In the north-western Wedding neighbourhood, police led a sniffer dog into a building. Rooms and offices on the ground floor were searched. Officers carried laptops out.

The public prosecutor's office said the operation was preceded by intensive work by a specially set up investigative group, EG Spannung, at the Berlin state criminal police office (LKA). The case concerns suspicion of anti-constitutional sabotage, forming a criminal organization and arson.

"The security authorities know the hard core of the protagonists," the Police Union (GdP) stressed. "But it is still incredibly difficult to prove arson attacks" such as the one in south-east Berlin or another attack that left thousands without power in early January in subfreezing temperatures in south-west Berlin.

The LKA had investigated successfully "to obtain today's search warrants," the union said.

Raid against anarchist group

The operation was directed against an anarchist group, with an anarchist magazine run by a small group from Bavaria said to play a role, according to a story in Die Welt newspaper.

According to dpa information, the arson attack on September 9 is being attributed to the left-wing extremist spectrum. Germany's domestic intelligence agency is said to have been significantly involved in the investigation.

Nothing is known so far about possible links between the suspected perpetrators and so-called volcano groups. These groups claimed responsibility for the second major arson attack on high-voltage cables in Berlin on January 3. That attack led to a power outage lasting several days, leaving thousands in south-west Berlin in the cold as sub-freezing temperatures prevailed. Investigators are still searching intensively for those responsible.

Attack on power pylon and high-voltage cables

Suspected left-wing extremists carried out an arson attack on a power pylon on September 9 and largely destroyed high-voltage cables.

Initially, around 50,000 private and business customers of state-owned operator Stromnetz were affected by the power outage. Companies suffered estimated losses of between €30 million (34.8 million) and €70 million.

"Violent acts and attacks on infrastructure by left-wing extremists have not necessarily increased in number in recent years, but they have certainly increased in intensity," Holger Muench, president of the Federal Criminal Police Office, told dpa in early March.