Berlin mayor faces calls to resign after playing tennis during city blackout

The attack cut electricity to about 45,000 households and more than 2,000 businesses. Some in the city squares were illuminated by portable lamps but questions have been raised about Germany’s readiness to deal with sabotage. Photograph: Halil Sagirkaya/Anadolu/Getty Images

Berlin’s mayor, Kai Wegner, is facing calls to resign after it emerged he opted to play tennis hours after a crippling blackout triggered by an arson attack hit a large swathe of the city, and then misled the public about it.

Districts in the south-west of the German capital were gradually returning to normal after the longest power cut since the second world war as Wegner acknowledged he had not been entirely forthcoming about his actions when the outage began.