Munich : burning data cables under the bridge

In Munich on Friday night, July 8, at around 4 a.m., two excavators were set alight on a construction site next to the Herzog-Heinrich bridge, which crosses both the Isar river and the canal. And it’s fair to say that the construction machines, whose engines caught fire, were admirably positioned, as data cables for telecom companies run under this bridge, which in turn caught fire, along with the bridge’s substructure. An expert must now examine the structure to decide if and when it can be reopened to traffic.

According to the police, the damage and location point to arson. Not least because the Herzog Heinrich Bridge is only a few meters south of the Leinthaler Bridge, which was the scene of an arson attack in December 2019. This attack destroyed two large Vodafone fiber-optic cables located along the two bridges, which supplied power to major companies such as BMW, as well as the Munich municipal services’ northern thermal power station. It was an act of solidarity that raised the proposal: “Let’s cut off the juice to the climate killers”.

While the 2019 attack caused several hundred thousand euros’ worth of damage, the same amount is now being claimed by the local press for last Saturday’s cable fire (excavators included).

Last but not least, the journacops were quick to point out that “bundles of cables and cell phone masts have been burnt down in the Munich area for years”, most recently in the Harlaching district at the end of May, where 26 fiber optic reels were destroyed, and in the Waldtrudering district in June, when a relay antenna was set on fire.

[German press summary (public radio BR24), July 8, 2023]

via: sansnom