On the site of the Garzweiler opencast mine in North Rhine-Westphalia, an approximately 80-meter-high electricity pylon has buckled. As the operator of the opencast mine, RWE assumes that the pylon was “deliberately damaged and brought down”.
An RWE spokesman said on Saturday: “Should it have been sabotage of the critical infrastructure, we condemn it in the strongest possible terms.” The police confirmed that “the influence of third parties is likely”. According to the company, the mast supplies the mine with electricity.
To be on the safe side, two of the four circuits running over the mast were switched off. However, the Garzweiler opencast mine is still in operation: “The power plants can also continue to work.”
According to RWE, an employee discovered the collapsed mast on Friday and alerted the police. Experts anchored and secured the mast accordingly on Saturday night.
The police began an investigation at the scene. A photo from the crime scene shows that screws were loosened and metal parts were obviously sawn off.