"Berlin mayor Kai Wegner drew criticism after admitting to journalists he played tennis on the first day of the city's largest blackout in decades, as tens of thousands were left without power, heating and phone service. The outage that began last Saturday was caused by an arson attack on a cable bridge in the city's southwest. It initially cut electricity to 45,000 households and 2,200 businesses, with some 100,000 residents left without heat as temperatures hovered below freezing."
""He knew that thousands of households had lost power, and I assume he also knew how long it would last. And he didn't respond appropriately," Momper said. Momper also criticized Wegner for initially leaving out that he had played tennis when speaking with journalists about his schedule on the first day of the blackout. "It wasn't entirely true that he had been working all day; you can't say that," Momper said, adding he suspects Wegner was trying to protect himself from criticism."
The blackout began after an arson attack on a cable bridge in southwest Berlin, cutting electricity to 45,000 households and 2,200 businesses and leaving about 100,000 residents without heat in freezing temperatures. Power was fully restored over five days, making it the longest blackout in Berlin's postwar history. Mayor Kai Wegner said he played tennis for an hour roughly five hours after the outage started, saying he needed to "clear his head" and remained reachable. Wegner faced criticism for not visiting affected neighborhoods and for initially omitting that he had played tennis, prompting calls for an explanation.
Read at www.dw.com
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