Germany investigates possible sabotage of water supply at military base

BERLIN (Reuters) -A German military base next to Cologne airport was temporarily sealed off on Wednesday and soldiers there were told not to drink tap water as authorities investigated possible sabotage, the military's Territorial Command said.

A guard detected a hole in the fence near the water processing plant of the barracks early on Wednesday morning, prompting a search of the premises which did not turn up any trespassers, the Territorial Command said in a press release.

"The water supply was interrupted as the drinking-water system showed unusual values," it said.

The base, which has 4,300 soldiers and 1,200 civilian employees, was reopened in the afternoon. It is home to the fleet of military aircraft used for travel by Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his ministers.

The barracks will be supplied with water by canister until test results were available.

A NATO base in nearby Geilenkirchen, housing the alliances' fleet of AWACS surveillance planes, raised its security level after the incident in Cologne but did not shut down access.

"The base (in Geilenkirchen) was at no time sealed off. We checked the water, it is okay, and the base is accessible," the spokesperson said.

A German military spokesperson had previously said that the Geilenkirchen base had been sealed off.

NATO has warned in the past of a campaign of hostile activities staged by Moscow, including acts of sabotage and cyberattacks, but there was no indication of who might have gained illegal access to the Cologne base.

In June, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the Western military alliance saw a pattern evolving and that recent attacks were a result of Russian intelligence becoming more active.

Several countries such as Poland, Germany, Britain and the Czech Republic have reported incidents in the past months.

(Reporting by Sabine Siebold and Matthias Inverardi, Editing by Miranda Murray, Crispian Balmer and Angus MacSwan)