A suspected arson attack on a cable unit in north-west Berlin has caused severe disruption to long-distance and commuter trains.

Deutsche Bahn, the German national rail network, said “vandalism” to a section of cables in the Jungfernheide area meant that no travel was possible between the capital’s main train station and the Spandau district.

It said that long-distance trains were being diverted and that some services may not stop at Spandau station. Normal services were expected to resume no earlier than Friday afternoon.

The vandalism appears to have some similarities with a large-scale attack on the French rail network by Left-wing radicals last week, which occurred just before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris.

The Berlin fire department said a five-metre section of cables between Jungfernheide and Beusselstraße had been damaged by a fire which has now been extinguished.

RBB24, a German news outlet, said investigators have ruled out the possibility of a technical failure being the cause of the disruption.

Germany’s rail network is already subject to frequent delays and cancellations, in part due to renovation works across the country. A recent report found that one third of German long-distance trains do not arrive on time, undermining the country’s reputation for strict efficiency.

It comes after a group of suspected Left-wing saboteurs launched a major attack on the French rail network last week, bringing the country to a standstill.

Gabriel Attal, the French prime minister, said the attack had targeted “nerve centres” in the rail system, referring to fibre optic networks in six areas of France.

French police say they have arrested an “ultra Left-wing activist” in northern France who was found to be carrying “access keys to [state rail operator] SNCF technical premises”, “wire cutters”, and a “set of universal keys” among other items.

He was also carrying “ultra-Left literature” and a book, The Vertigo of the Riot: from the Zad to the Yellow Vests, by author Romain Huët.

The Yellow Vests was a grassroots mass protest movement which launched huge protests across France in 2018.

Zad, or “zones à défendre” (zones to defend), refers to sites in France occupied by climate activists trying to block what they deem as environmentally harmful development projects.