German police suspect arson after fires broke out at two points on a railway embankment between Cologne and Düsseldorf on Friday morning, forcing the closure of a busy commuter and freight corridor. The blaze damaged several signal cables between Langenfeld and Leverkusen, halting all train traffic on the section. Cologne's state security police have opened an investigation into whether the fire was deliberately set, with repairs expected to continue into the afternoon.
A claim of responsibility appeared Friday on the left-wing platform Indymedia, attributed to a group calling itself "Kommando Angry Birds." The group said it placed incendiary devices with timers in two cable ducts at a bridge over the Wupper river. Describing itself as an anti-technology movement seeking the dismantling of the industrial system, the group cited mass extinction driven by technological progress as its motive. The same group previously claimed a January 2025 arson attack on a freight rail line between Düsseldorf and Solingen.