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BERLIN (Reuters) – A German military base near Cologne airport has temporarily confined thousands of troops there, warning them not to drink tap water after suspicions of sabotage, a security source said on Wednesday.
Water at the base, which houses 4,300 soldiers and 1,200 civilian employees, may have been contaminated after someone broke into the premises, the source added, confirming a report by Spiegel magazine.
The base was reopened in the afternoon, but a ban on the use of tap water was maintained as a precautionary measure pending the results of the tests, the source said.
The Cologne-Wahn base is home to the fleet of military aircraft used for the travel of Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his ministers.
“We have our reasons for taking this measure and we take the matter seriously,” said a spokesman for the territorial command in Berlin, without giving further details.
A NATO base near Geilenkirchen has increased security after the Cologne incident but has not locked down the area. A German military spokesman had previously said the base had been closed.
(Reporting Sabine Siebold and Matthias Inverardi, French version Kate Entringer, editing by Zhifan Liu)
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