Arson on the Düsseldorf-Duisburg rail line

On Thursday 31 July 2025, a fire broke out in a lineside cable trough on the Düsseldorf-Duisburg main line in the Düsseldorf urban area, one of Germany's busiest rail corridors. The next day, Friday 1 August, Deutsche Bahn workers inspecting the route found a second incendiary device about two kilometres from the first site. According to NZZ and swissinfo, police believe both devices were identical in construction and had been placed and ignited at the same time on the Thursday, with the second blaze only surfacing during the repairs. Police treat the attacks as sabotage, and the state security division (Staatsschutz) has taken over the investigation.

The fires struck cable troughs carrying signalling cables. As reported by Deutsche Bahn, cables had to be replaced over about 60 metres. Traffic between Düsseldorf and Duisburg, which normally carries several hundred trains a day, was halted; ICE services, the S1 commuter line, regional trains and connections to Düsseldorf Airport were cancelled or rerouted, affecting tens of thousands of passengers. Deutsche Bahn reported the line reopened early on Saturday 2 August after overnight repairs.

A claim of responsibility appeared on the left-wing platform Indymedia from a group calling itself Kommando Angry Birds, saying many things would work better without the industrial system. As reported by taz, the same group has linked itself to a series of comparable arson actions against rail infrastructure around Düsseldorf since 2023. The claim's authenticity remained unconfirmed.

Open-source reporting attributes the arson to the self-styled far-left, anti-industrial Kommando Angry Birds, which posted a claim on Indymedia, though attribution remains a claim rather than legally proven and the state security division is still investigating. This is domestic extremism with an anti-industrial and anti-militarist motive, not the work of a foreign state. It formed part of a wave of three rail fires in two days, including a cable fire on a coal freight line at Hohenmölsen in Saxony-Anhalt. This entry may change as investigators publish findings.