Damage to cables means tens of thousands will be without electricity until Thursday amid freezing temperatures
Tens of thousands of homes in Berlin will be without electricity until Thursday as authorities struggle to repair power cables seriously damaged in a suspected arson attack, officials have said.
Some households may also be without heating as the outage has affected local systems at a time when the German capital is blanketed in snow and temperatures are hovering around freezing.
Emergency services were alerted early on Saturday that several high-voltage cables on a bridge near a power plant had gone up in flames.
Firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze, but about 45,500 homes and 2,200 businesses in districts in south-west Berlin were left without power, according to the grid operator Stromnetz Berlin.
