Suspected arson at German substation leaves thousands without power

A fire at an electrical substation in the southwestern German city of Reutlingen cut power to thousands of households overnight, with authorities saying Monday they are investigating suspected arson after discovering multiple ignition points at the site.

The city of Reutlingen said about 7,600 households remained without electricity Monday morning, warning that a reliable timeline for full restoration was not yet available.

The outage began around 1:45 a.m. local time (2345GMT Sunday) when the Reutlingen-West substation went offline, German news agency dpa reported. At the peak of the blackout, roughly 20,000 customers were affected, authorities said. By 7:15 a.m. (0515GMT), power had been restored to about half of them, including the downtown area and the local hospital.

A spokesperson for the regional grid operator Netze BW told reporters there were clear indications of arson. Investigators found “three fire sites,” and a fence and the area in front of the facility had been damaged.

A spokesperson for Baden-Württemberg’s state criminal police office said officers were “investigating in all directions.”

The incident is similar to two suspected far-left arson attacks on Berlin’s power grid last year. In the Sept. 9, 2025 attack, about 50,000 homes and 2,000 businesses lost electricity, and service was not fully restored until the afternoon of Sept. 11—roughly 60 hours later.