What to do if you find sabotage or a damaged installation

Official updatesLU-Alert · RTL, 100.7 · 112

Do this now

Keep away and keep other people away. Do not touch cables, pipes, cabinets or anything lying nearby. Treat every cable as live.
If you smell gas, leave at once. No flames, no light switches, and do not use your phone until you are well away.
Call Status: Verified if there is fire, smoke, sparks, a leak or a loose cable, or if anyone is hurt.
If there is no immediate danger, call the police on Status: Verified. Say exactly where it is and what you saw.
If someone is still there, do not follow or challenge them. Note what you can from a distance. See Suspicious behaviour.
Do not post photos or the location online. Give them to the police.
Get ready for an outage: fill water containers while the taps work, charge your phone, and follow LU-Alert and the radio.

Electricity or telecom cabinets, fences or gates that have been forced open, cut or burnt.
Cut cables, damaged meters, or cables hanging from a mast or a building.
Water installations, such as a pumping station, reservoir cover or hydrant, that have been opened or tampered with.
Damage near railway lines, substations, gas stations or phone masts, sometimes with marks or stickers nearby.

A power, water or phone outage may be the first sign of sabotage. Keep supplies for the first days; see the emergency kit checklist.
Write the police and emergency numbers in your household plan, on paper as well as in your phone.
Know where your own water stopcock, gas valve and fuse box are, so you can shut them off if you are told to.

Let the network operator and the emergency services do the repair. Do not try to reconnect or fix anything yourself.
If a water installation was involved, follow official instructions before you drink tap water again. See No water, or water unsafe.
If the power or the network goes down, switch to Power is out or Phone and internet down.
If the police contact you, tell them everything you noticed, even small details.
Check rumours before you share them. See False information.

Teach them never to touch cabinets, cables or anything that looks broken, and to tell an adult straight away.

If you rely on powered medical equipment, plan a backup now: a sabotaged line can mean a long outage.
If you cannot call, ask someone nearby to call for you.

Report to your security officer as well as the police, and follow your site's emergency plan.

Damage at a remote mast, line or pumping station can go unnoticed for hours. Report it even if you think someone else already has.