Germany is offering a massive bounty for information leading to arrests of the perpetrators behind an unprecedented attack on the Berlin grid in early January.
The blackout plunged 50,000 people in the affluent south-west of Berlin for five days and is considered the largest power outage in the post-war history of Germany’s capital.
Offering €1 million for tips is “unprecedented,” said Berlin’s senator of the interior, Iris Spranger, on Monday, speaking to lawmakers. She could not recall a bounty of similar size in recent years, she added. ”We are talking about terrorism.”
A left-wing terrorist outfit known as Vulkangruppe, whose roots trace back to 2011, claimed responsibility for the attack. The incident is part of a broader pattern of attacks targeting infrastructure in and around the German capital in recent years.
The growing sophistication of online infrastructure that shares guidance on carrying out attacks and evading law enforcement has gained popularity in recent years, following large-scale climate protests around the country.