Berlin mayor faces calls to resign after playing tennis during city blackout

Kai Wegner acknowledged he had not been entirely forthcoming to public about his actions when outage began

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Berlin’s mayor, Kai Wegner, is facing calls to resign after it emerged he opted to play tennis hours after a crippling blackout triggered by an arson attack hit a large swathe of the city, and then misled the public about it.

Districts in the south-west of the German capital were gradually returning to normal after the longest power cut since the second world war as Wegner acknowledged he had not been entirely forthcoming about his actions when the outage began.

Leftwing militants claimed responsibility for the attack on Saturday that deliberately cut the electricity to about 45,000 households and more than 2,000 businesses, and raised troubling questions about German preparedness for sabotage.