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Police spokesman Thomas Geithner held up the remains of the metal foil of the balloon at the press conference
Photo: Sebastian Kahnert / dpa
The large-scale power outage in Dresden and the surrounding area of the Saxon state capital on Monday afternoon was caused by an aluminum-coated balloon that triggered a short circuit at a critical point in a substation in the south of the city.
A commercial balloon, which is used at weddings or children's birthdays, said police spokesman Thomas Geithner 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.
The sense of investigation and all the facts suggest that it was not a purposeful act.
On Monday, 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.
Because of the upcoming general election, the ongoing trial against suspected left-wing extremists and several meetings in the city, the worst case could not be ruled out.