Countless travelers were stranded at the train stations. Bremen, Hamburg, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein were particularly affected. The reason for the malfunction was presumably sabotage. Train traffic in northern Germany came to a standstill for three hours last Saturday. 

German railway company Deutsche Bahn blamed cable tampering for a major train failure and said safety authorities had taken over the investigation. It had previously reported that the "technical malfunction" had been resolved. There was no immediate information on possible suspects. However, investigators said the communication cables had been cut at one site outside Berlin and another in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia. 

Cables for DB's communications network had been cut in two locations, anonymous security sources told Der Spiegel magazine. The magazine initially noted that it was not clear whether the cutting was caused by a saboteur or whether it was accidental damage from construction work.

All ICE traffic between Berlin, Hanover and North Rhine-Westphalia was affected. International connections such as IC trains between Berlin and Amsterdam were also not running. IC trains from Copenhagen stopped at the border. Regional trains in Lower Saxony, Bremen and Schleswig-Holstein were also affected.