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Explosive and incendiary devices damage high-voltage power lines in Brandenburg, Germany.

On 1 September 2026, German police and emergency services investigated a sabotage attack against high-voltage power infrastructure at the Turnow-Preilack substation in Brandenburg, near the Jänschwalde power plant. Authorities were alerted at around 08:00 after suspected damage was reported on overhead power lines connected to the substation. Brandenburg Interior Minister Jan Redmann said rockets carrying conductive material had been fired into extra-high-voltage lines, causing two short circuits. Police and bomb-disposal specialists found multiple improvised explosive and incendiary devices at the site, with the number of devices reportedly reaching double digits. The Turnow-Preilack substation is a critical node linking the Jänschwalde power plant to the 50Hertz transmission grid, making the site part of Germany’s strategic electricity infrastructure. A brief power cut occurred, and one unit at the Jänschwalde power plant shut down spontaneously, but the general electricity supply was not disrupted and power lines were later back in operation. German officials treated the case as sabotage and linked it to wider concerns about threats to critical infrastructure. Redmann did not rule out foreign involvement, but he also did not exclude domestic extremist actors, including left-wing activists previously associated with attacks on power infrastructure. Therefore, this should be recorded as “Fitting the pattern”, not “Officially attributed”: the incident fits the broader pattern of hybrid threats against European critical infrastructure, but it was not officially attributed to Russia in the available reporting.

Occurrence

2026-09-01

Publication

2026-09-01T10:03:59Z

First observed

2026-09-24T06:09:10.079Z

Review status

Not assessed

Countries

DE

Updated

2026-09-27T23:56:59.668Z