Sabotage of high-voltage power line

“The base has been sawn off”: an electricity pylon collapses in the Loiret region
France3, April 2, 2025

Just imagine the violence of the impact. A pylon, weighing several dozen tons, crashing to the ground. A very rare incident, but it happened on Tuesday April 1 at around 6 p.m., in the commune of Malesherbois, near Pithiviers.

The kind of “April fool’s joke” the grid operator could have done without. On Wednesday, some twenty technicians from Réseau de Transport d’Electricité (RTE) were on site to repair the pylon. The gendarmes were also on hand to make observations. RTE suspects “vandalism: the wind is not the explanation. The base of the pylon was sawn off”.

However, there was no power cut. “When it fell, the safety system was activated, cutting off the electricity and redirecting it to another network”, explains the company. The line is a high-voltage line, i.e. carrying a minimum current of 225,000 volts.

A security perimeter was set up within a 500-meter radius of the pylon. A complaint has been lodged and an investigation launched.

via: sansnom  Translated by Act for freedom now!