German grid sabotage suspect compiled list of 160 possible targets

A notebook containing handwritten notes on more than 160 previous and possible further sabotage targets has been found in the camper van of a suspected saboteur of Germany's energy supply, officials said on Thursday.

"We have not only caught the suspected perpetrator of the attacks but may also have prevented further attacks," Herbert Reul, the interior minister of the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, told the state parliament's interior committee.

German police detained a 48-year-old man on Tuesday suspected of several acts of sabotage on the national electricity grid.

Reul said the suspect also named seven other locations to the remanding judge that he said he had used as storage sites. Police had already found evidence at three of these locations and are checking the information. The suspect is currently leading officers in a patrol car to the various sites.

More than 1,700 police officers from North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populated state, were involved in the operation to investigate and locate the suspected perpetrator.

Two motorway police officers eventually tracked the man down on Tuesday morning after noticing flattened grass near Weisweiler that led 200 metres from a farm track into bushes. 

"They were not actually involved in the search for the man but showed exactly the right instinct," Reul said.

Well-camouflaged tent

Reul said the man had been hiding in a well-camouflaged tent that was not visible from a police helicopter. The suspect did not resist when he was arrested. Two arrest warrants have now been issued against him. The federal prosecutor's office is still examining whether to take over the investigation.

In one of his claim-of-responsibility letters, the suspect said the fight against power generation from fossil fuels was his motive. Reul said that the attacker's motive appeared to be to specifically target the country's grid stability with the idea of causing a blackout. But the actions did not produce a power outage.

More than 40 launch devices for rockets have so far been found in North Rhine-Westphalia. "It all looked pretty professionally built," Reul said. Further devices were found in the eastern states of Brandenburg and Saxony, among other places. During a search of the suspects registered address in Gevelsberg, substances for building explosive devices were also seized.

Call for better protection

The suspect had not been on authorities' radar, Reul said. There is also no evidence so far of accomplices or control by foreign powers.

"Our critical infrastructure must be better protected," Reul demanded. Operators need clearer and more rights.

"A fence from the '90s does not protect 21st-century grids."