Germany is offering a one-million-euro ($1.2 million) reward for information leading to the arrest of suspected far-left militants whose arson attack caused a massive blackout in Berlin, the interior minister said Tuesday.
The electricity outage left roughly 45,000 homes and around 2,200 businesses without power for nearly a week in the middle of winter in the southwest of the German capital.
Police are hunting members of the far-left “Vulkangruppe” (Volcano Group), which claimed responsibility for the early January blackout in several online statements.
Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt on Tuesday vowed to “strike back”.
“I think it’s appropriate to underscore the seriousness of the situation with a reward of this magnitude,” Dobrindt said.Authorities have deemed the online messages from the mysterious Vulkangruppe “credible”.
According to Germany’s BfV domestic intelligence agency, the group has been active since 2011 and is also believed to be behind several other arson attacks in and around Berlin.It claimed responsibility for two sabotage attacks targeting electric carmaker Tesla’s factory just outside Berlin.
Dobrindt said police would launch a publicity campaign to solicit tips and tout the reward, including leaflets and posters in Berlin’s subway system.
Dobrindt, a conservative ally of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, also vowed to put more resources into fighting “left-wing extremism” more broadly and urged greater police powers to use facial recognition technology and collect digital data.
