09 March 2024 , 08:00
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After more than a decade of setting cars and buildings ablaze, the Volcano Group has a new objective: to “sabotage Tesla”.
The far-left gang claimed to be behind Tuesday’s (March 5) arson attack on Tesla’s Gigafactory near Berlin, Germany. The company’s production was ground to a halt after a high-voltage transmission line was reportedly set alight at 4.50am.
More than 12,500 workers were evacuated, while hundreds of millions of pounds - reported as up to $1billion - worth of damage was caused. The so-called hits are now being investigated by German police as “left-wing politically motivated” crimes.
Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, slammed the group as “the dumbest eco-terrorists on Earth,” on his social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, on Tuesday afternoon. The radical organisation claimed they were disrupting production of the tech mogul's “monster trucks” which are depleting the Earth of its resources. So, who is the Volcano Group?
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Tesla owner Elon Musk slammed the 'eco-terrorists' who claimed to be behind an arson attack (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)The alleged anarchists have been wreaking havoc in Germany since 2011, targeting railway lines, radio masts, data lines and company vehicles. Germany’s federal intelligence agency outlined their goal as to “reveal the vulnerability of the urban mobility and communication infrastructure, disrupt public order and cause significant property damage”.
In 2018, a power cable was destroyed in Berlin-Charlottenburg and two years later, they claimed to burn a cable shaft in Berlin. The attack was in response to the "expansion of surveillance measures" in the Covid-19 pandemic, the group wrote at the time. Around 6,500 homes and 400 companies were without power for hours, while property damages ran into millions of pounds.
Tesla's production ceased after a high-voltage pylon became damaged (FILIP SINGER/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)Following both incidents, an ominous letter appeared claiming the Volcano Group was behind the attack. "The group wants to make it clear how fragile communication and public life is,” expert on extremism, Felix Neumann, told local news outlet rbb24.
After each alleged attack the group left a confession letter with an “identical group of authors,” the intelligence agency added. After Tuesday’s attack, the Volcano Group’s statement was signed under the pseudonym Agua De Pau, named after a volcanic mountain in the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores.
Local fire brigade rushed to the scene to check on the Tesla plant after a blackout occurred (FILIP SINGER/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)Posted to alternative media website kontrapolis.info, it read: “We sabotaged Tesla. Tesla consumes earth, resources, people, workers and in return spits out 6,000 SUVs, killer cars and monster trucks each week.” The attacks were described as a gift for International Women's Day, which fell on Friday.
Despite Tesla’s mission of “accelerating the world's transition to sustainable energy,” the far-left group argued it’s having a dismal impact on the planet and its people from around the globe.
"The lithium batteries come from toxic mines in Chile and devour other rare metals, causing misery and destruction for the people in the mining areas,” it added. “The battery factory in Grünheide near Berlin requires the rare raw material lithium, which is also mined in Bolivia, for example.”
Protestors gathered at a nearby forest for 'Stop Tesla' demonstrations against its expansion plans (Getty Images)A seemingly infuriated Musk clapped back on X, posting: “These are either the dumbest eco-terrorists on Earth or they’re puppets of those who don’t have good environmental goals.”
The incident occurred amidst ongoing 'Stop Tesla' protests against the firm's expansion plans. Activists have been demonstrating in a nearby forest, inhabiting tents and treehouses, resembling previous German environmental movements.
It's not the first time Musk’s electric vehicle company has been in the crosshairs. The Volcano Group boasted that they burned a power cable that supplied the Tesla factory construction site in 2021. They accused the company of being “neither ecological nor socially just”.
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