Enlarge image
Deutsche Bahn freight trains (near Munich)
Photo:
Sven Hoppe / picture alliance / dpa
Deutsche Bahn has again fallen victim to saboteurs.
According to SPIEGEL information, unknown perpetrators broke into two signal box buildings on a railway line in Essen-Dellwig last Sunday.
According to an internal official note on the incident, they “specifically” cut through important cables in several switch boxes.
The route near the scene of the crime, on which only freight trains travel, had to be closed to train traffic after the damage was discovered, as several level crossings were without electricity.
The route had only been reopened the day before after a year of construction.
However, passenger traffic was not affected.
The repair in the two signal boxes was not immediately possible.
Nevertheless, freight trains can already run on the route again, since the affected level crossings can be operated with batteries.
The police state protection has started the investigation.
The case is reminiscent of similar acts of sabotage in the fall.
At that time, unknown persons first cut through the fiber optic cable of the railway's internal mobile network in Herne in North Rhine-Westphalia and a few hours later in Berlin.
As a result, train traffic was canceled for several hours in large parts of northern Germany.
The Karlsruhe federal prosecutor's office is now investigating these cases on suspicion of "anti-constitutional sabotage".
The investigators assume that the perpetrators severed the relevant cables in order to paralyze the internal communication network.
So far, however, according to security circles, there is no hot lead in the case.
It currently seems rather unlikely that the same perpetrators were at work in the actions in Herne and Berlin.
In any case, railway circles suspect no connection between the sabotage in Essen and the attacks in autumn.
Things look "different," it said.