Rail Service Halted at Duisburg Station.
The railway system has been grappling with the issue of metal theft for many years, but a unique solution for marking cables has made it easier to apprehend metal thieves. However, the recent disruption on the railway line between Düsseldorf and Duisburg, which occurred on Friday, August 1, 2025, is a different matter altogether.
The initial disruption was caused by a cable fire, which investigators believe was deliberately set. Thousands of rail passengers in the region had to switch to shuttle buses as a result of the disruption. On Friday, technicians discovered that a cable channel had also been set on fire two kilometers away from the first fire site.
The state protection department and the Office for the Protection of the Constitution have already initiated investigations into the sabotage. The responsibility for the sabotage is not yet clear, but available information indicates that a far-left group has been mentioned in the context of the sabotage investigation.
Terrorism expert Holger Schmidt warns not to limit the investigation exclusively to the left-wing extremist scene, as saboteurs controlled by Russia have also carried out attacks in Germany in the past.
The railway line between Düsseldorf and Duisburg is a key rail line, and the attack on it has caused major disruptions. The attack on the railway line between Düsseldorf and Solingen, which occurred in January 2025, was chosen for its impact on heavily used routes in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), including the "Wupper axis" and the "Ruhr axis," causing major disruptions to long-distance connections to Berlin.
The railway has a problem with its cable protection, making them easy to manipulate. It is impossible to guard the installations around the clock due to their vast distance. Critical infrastructure is vulnerable, with much of it being publicly visible on the internet, making it easy for potential attackers to find sensitive points.
Modern technology, such as sensors, thermal cameras, drones, cameras, and pressure sensors, is used to protect railway tracks, but cables are not sufficiently protected against manipulations. The introduction of digital signaling technology will allow faults due to cable breaks to be fixed faster in the future, but more switches and crossover points, increased reaction capacities, and distributed resources to fix incidents would be beneficial for resilience and infrastructure security.
The "Angry Birds" are a loose network of individuals who post instructions for acts of sabotage on the internet, with no fixed group structure. The group, which presents itself as an anti-capitalist movement that aims for the "liberation of nature," has claimed responsibility for attacks on railway tracks in the past. However, their authenticity is still being checked, and no group or individual has been confirmed as responsible for the current sabotage so far.
Investigations are ongoing, and no definitive attribution has been made. The sabotage is currently characterized as criminal vandalism/arson causing major disruptions, with possible links under investigation, including a mention of a far-left group, but no conclusive public findings yet. The police are investigating the arson on the Düsseldorf railway section, but the responsibility for the sabotage is not yet clear.
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- Despite the success of marking cables to combat metal theft in the transportation sector, a recent incident involving deliberate cable fires on the railway line between Düsseldorf and Duisburg has caused major disruptions, leading to investigations by the state protection department and the Office for the Protection of Constitution, with potential links to a far-left group under investigation. (general-news, crime-and-justice, transportation, industry, finance)
- The economic impact of the cable fire-induced disruption on the railway line between Düsseldorf and Duisburg has raised concerns within the finance industry, as it serves as a critical infrastructure for the region, with connections to Berlin being severely affected. (industry, finance, transportation, general-news)
- While the responsibility for the sabotage remains unclear, terrorism expert Holger Schmidt urges investigators to expand their inquiry beyond the left-wing extremist scene, in light of the history of sabotage carried out by groups controlled by Russia, as the "Angry Birds," an anti-capitalist network responsible for previous attacks on railway tracks, have also been suspected. (crime-and-justice, terrorism, general-news, transportation, industry, finance)
