Cyber incident reportedly disrupts construction of Denmark-Germany tunnel

Aysu Bicer

A cyber incident has hit a contractor building the Fehmarn Belt tunnel linking Denmark and Germany, reportedly disabling central systems and disrupting construction, local media reported Tuesday.

Femern Link Contractors (FLC), the project’s main contractor, informed Danish state-owned infrastructure company Sund & Baelt of the incident.

“We are in dialogue with FLC about the situation, and at the present time we do not have further information,” Sund & Baelt press director Jens Villemoes said in a statement published on the project’s official website.

According to Danish newspaper Lolland-Falsters Folketidende, the incident knocked central systems offline and significantly affected work on the multibillion-kroner project.

Sund & Baelt did not specify which systems were affected, the extent of the disruption or who might be responsible.

The Fehmarn Belt tunnel, one of Europe’s major infrastructure projects, is being built beneath the Baltic Sea to connect Rodbyhavn in southern Denmark with Puttgarden in northern Germany.

Once completed, the tunnel is expected to cut travel times between the two countries to seven minutes by train and 10 minutes by car.

Construction began on the Danish side in 2020 and on the German side in 2021.