Berlin police said Tuesday they were examining a claim from an unnamed anarchist group that they carried out an arson attack which caused a widespread power outage.
Tens of thousands of homes and businesses in the German capital were left without electricity after two transmission pylons were found ablaze around 3:00 am (0100 GMT), a police spokeswoman told AFP.
Several schools and daycare centres as well as traffic lights and tram lines were impacted, while firefighters had to transfer some nursing home patients to a nearby hospital.
The fire broke out in the Johannisthal district in the city’s southeast, with the outage affecting some 50,000 households and business customers.
By late Tuesday power had been restored to many customers, according to Berlin’s electricity grid operator — but it warned more than 30,000 were still without power and it could take several days for full supply to return.
The Indymedia alternative media platform published a letter signed by “a group of anarchists” claiming responsibility for the fires.
They said the action was aimed at “turning off the energy for the military industrial complex”, referring to a large technology park in the area.
A police spokeswoman told AFP that “the authenticity of the letter is being investigated”.
The district authorities said that 12 schools would have to remain closed on Wednesday as a result of the outage but that they should reopen on Thursday.
While investigators have not yet identified a suspected perpetrator, German authorities have in the past pointed to Russia as being behind surveillance and sabotage activities targeting its infrastructure.
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