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"Due to sabotage on cables that are indispensable for rail traffic,
Deutsche Bahn had to stop rail traffic in the north this morning for
nearly three hours," dpa cited a DB spokesperson as saying.
Neither state-owned rail operator Deutsche Bahn nor the Interior
Ministry were immediately available for comment.
DB said on its Twitter page that rail traffic was still patchy in
northern Germany on Saturday afternoon after coming to a standstill
for several hours due to an issue with radio communications.
The disruptions are affecting rail services through the state of
Lower Saxony as well as the city states of Bremen and Hamburg, with
a knock-on effect to international rail journeys to Denmark and the
Netherlands.
Citing sources in the security services, Der Spiegel magazine
reported that cables for DB's communication network had been cut in
two places. It was not clear whether this was an act of sabotage or
was accidental damage, due for example to construction work, the
magazine wrote.
Deutsche Bahn has become increasingly known in recent years for
train delays and cancellations due to its creaking infrastructure.
But the disruption on Saturday raised alarm bells after NATO and the
European Union last month stressed the need to protect critical
infrastructure, after what they called acts of "sabotage" on the
Nord Stream gas pipelines.
(Reporting by Sarah Marsh; Additional reporting by Andreas Rinke and
Christian Ruettger; Editing by Catherine Evans and David Holmes)
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