More than 14,000 in Washington state lose power after energy station attacked

More than 14,000 people suffered power outages in Washington state on Christmas Day following burglaries and a series of vandalisms at different power stations.

The Pierce county sheriff said in two statements that no suspects have yet been identified for the incidents.

The Christmas Day outages add to an alarming and increasing list of similar incidents in the US. There were six attacks across power stations in Oregon and Washington earlier this month, following a similar attack on a power grid in North Carolina at the beginning of December.

In the attack in North Carolina, assailants shot gunfire into two stations, with some claiming that it was done in order to halt a local drag show.

While there are no suspects in the string of attacks, there are concerns that at least some of these assaults are carried out by extremists, motivated by online conspiracy theories and pursuing a far-right agenda.

At about 5.30am, a break-in and vandalism in a Tacoma Public Utilities facility about 10 miles away, led to a power outage.

Tacoma Public Utilities said in a statement on Sunday that the issue was a lot more severe than they had initially thought.

Of those affected, more than 7,000 customers were out of power before the sun was up on Christmas morning, KING 5 reported.