Mayor Kai Wegner has classified the major attack on Berlin’s power supply as terrorism: “This is not just arson or sabotage. This is already terrorism,” the conservative politician told the regional RBB television on Sunday evening.

Wegner said that a left-wing extremist group attacked the infrastructure, endangering lives, including those of elderly people who might need ventilators and families with young children.

“We must catch these perpetrators now,” he added.

The Berlin police, the city-state’s Criminal Police Office and the regional domestic intelligence service, officially the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, have been involved in the investigation.

“We are also in contact with the Federal Criminal Police Office, with the federal level, because this is no joke but a terrorist attack,” Wegner said.

Pressure must now be increased to apprehend the perpetrators, he said.