Cable theft paralyzes train traffic in eastern Germany

A number of rail services in the Ruhr region in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in eastern Germany have been cancelled or diverted due to a cable break near Gelsenkirchen, Tagesschau said.

According to Der Spiegel, citing railway operator Deutche Bahn, the incident also affected long-distance traffic, including from Dortmund to Munich, from Hamburg to Basel and from Northern Germany to Cologne.

According to Gelsenkirchen police, unknown persons cut and tore parts of the cable along the railway tracks in several places, resulting in the failure of alarm and control systems.

By midday on Saturday, September 26, train traffic began to gradually resume, however, as told Die Zeit representative Deutche Bahn, disruptions in traffic will continue in the afternoon.

In late June, Deutsche Bahn reported that its trains had temporarily stopped operating in Germany due to a radio outage.