Blast at German Train Station Injures Two

Blast at German Train Station Injures Two

The News

An unidentified object exploded near the main train station in Augsburg, in southern Germany, early Wednesday, injuring two people and shattering windows, police said.

Reuters reported that police said the two victims suffered minor injuries. Police told the German tabloid Bild the injured were a 17-year-old girl and an 18-year-old man, according to The Sun.

Officials said the object went off in a building passageway near Augsburg's main station, The Independent reported. Bomb disposal teams were sent to the scene and part of the station was shut down while police worked.

The cause is not known. Police have not said what the object was or who put it there.

Timeline

Emergency services first received reports of the blast at about 3:15 a.m. local time Wednesday, September 2, according to The Sun.

Bomb squads were on site as police began investigating, authorities said. Several train services were suspended and nearby roads were closed.

Reuters reported Wednesday morning, citing police, that the German power grid had come under a fresh sabotage attack, and that police were treating an incident at a substation in North Rhine-Westphalia as a suspected attack attempt. Police have not publicly linked that case to the Augsburg explosion.

A day earlier, on Tuesday, September 1, German police opened an investigation into a suspected attack at the Turnow-Preilack substation in the eastern state of Brandenburg, where an unexploded incendiary device was found and power lines were damaged.

Reactions

Police in Augsburg said the cause of the blast was unclear and the investigation was continuing. Authorities confirmed bomb disposal specialists were deployed.

On the Brandenburg case, grid operator 50Hertz said "as yet unidentified perpetrators are believed to have caused damage to several power lines in 50Hertz's transmission grid," and later described the devices as homemade projectiles resembling standard fireworks. The operator said there was a brief power cut but all lines were back in service and the general electricity supply was never affected.

Brandenburg premier Dietmar Woidke condemned that incident. "We take attacks on our critical infrastructure very seriously. The alarmingly high frequency of such incidents shows that we must resolutely protect our infrastructure," he said.

What's Next

Augsburg police are investigating the origin of the exploded object; no arrests have been announced and no motive has been established.

Brandenburg's state criminal police office has taken over the substation investigation, according to Reuters and the Jerusalem Post.

More

Germany has been on high alert in recent weeks over what officials call a growing threat from cyber and hybrid attacks, Reuters reported.

On Tuesday, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said the government had concluded "that Russia is responsible for the hybrid attack in Leipzig" — an attempted drone attack discovered on August 4 at Leipzig/Halle Airport, where a drone fitted with explosives was found in the security area between Ukrainian cargo aircraft, according to Deutsche Welle. Dobrindt said Germany was "not at war" but was "a daily target of hybrid warfare."

Russia has previously dismissed accusations about its possible involvement in the airport incident as a "fabricated provocation," Reuters reported.

Germany has also seen domestic attacks on its grid: DW noted an arson attack on power lines in January, blamed on suspected far-left extremists, that left 45,000 Berlin households without power for days, and a March 2024 attack on an electricity pylon that cut power to a Tesla factory outside Berlin.

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