Enlarge image
Fallen power pole in Weilerswist: an accident with consequences
Photo: Thomas Schmitz / dpa
A 16-year-old is said to have bent the mast of a high-voltage line with his tractor in North Rhine-Westphalia.
The accident caused a power outage that lasted for hours, affecting tens of thousands of people in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Parts of the Euskirchen and Düren districts as well as the Rhein-Erft and Rhein-Sieg districts in the Rhineland were without electricity, said a spokeswoman for the distribution network operator Westnetz.
In the meantime, 65,000 people were affected.
The supply was restored a good four hours after the accident.
Westnetz explained that after the successful restoration of the supply, a temporary electricity pylon would be erected in the next few days.
The damaged mast must then be completely rebuilt.
The power supply on site will then remain secured.
Cause of accident unclear
A 110,000 volt power line was affected by the outage.
On the advice of the authorities, a second, parallel connection was also disabled to be on the safe side, said the Westnetz spokeswoman.
As a result, three Westnetz substations in Erftstadt-Lechenich, Weilerswist-Vernich and Zülpich were no longer connected to the grid.
According to the police, the 16-year-old drove into a cornfield in Weilerswist (Euskirchen district) at around 11:15 a.m. against the power pole.
The cause of the accident is still unclear, said a police spokesman.
The youth suffered minor injuries, as did a couple who were driving their car on the nearby county road and crashed into the power line.
According to the Euskirchen police, the mobile network was also partially affected by the failure.
All fire brigade equipment houses were manned as contact persons for emergencies.
The police increased their presence in the area.
In the Rhein-Erft district, there were parts of a hundred on site who were already in the vicinity because of a planned operation.
These should be accessible to citizens there, said a police spokesman.
"People are worried, afraid." After the electricity was back in the Erftstadt area, it said: "There are currently no known dangerous situations or criminal offenses in connection with the power failure."
bbr/dpa