[ad_1]
A military base near Cologne airport was temporarily blocked on Wednesday (August 14) and soldiers inside were told not to drink tap water as authorities investigate possible sabotage, the German military’s territorial command said.
The territorial command said in a press release that a guard discovered a hole in the fence near the military camp’s water treatment plant in the early hours of Wednesday and searched the premises but did not find any trespassers.
“Due to anomalies in the drinking water system, water supply was disrupted,” the report said.
The base, which houses 4,300 troops and 1,200 civilian employees and was reopened in the afternoon, is home to a fleet of military aircraft used by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his ministers when they travel.
Until the test results come out, the barracks will be supplied with water through tankers.
NATO’s AWACS fleet is stationed at a base near Geilenkirchen. After the Cologne incident, the base increased its security level but did not close the access.
“The base (in Geilenkirchen) has never been sealed off. We checked the water quality and everything is normal and the base is accessible,” the spokesman said.
A German military spokesman previously said the Geilenkirchen base had been blocked.
NATO has warned of a range of hostile activities from Moscow in the past, including acts of sabotage and cyberattacks, but there has been no indication of who might have illegally accessed the Cologne base.
In June, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the Western military alliance saw a pattern evolving and that recent attacks were the result of Russian intelligence services becoming more active.
Such incidents have been reported in several countries over the past few months, including Poland, Germany, the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic.
Read more by Euractiv
[ad_2]
Source link
