German police in Duisburg detained two 19-year-old Germans on Friday on suspicion of setting fire to Starlink antennas near the village of Plana, south of Sofia. They are Zeka Islam and Tirpan Beitula, BTA reported.

Bulgarian investigators say the two crossed the Serbian border as tourists on 9 October in a Volkswagen with German plates, and left that evening. They are suspected of burning eight antennas at the Plana teleport that day. There are 18 antennas at the site. Three were destroyed and five more were badly damaged.

The two were charged in absentia on 14 October. A national arrest warrant was issued on 16 October, followed by a European one. On Friday the pair appeared before the district court in Duisburg.

Their court-appointed lawyers asked that no arrest warrants be issued. They argue that the people on the security camera footage wear masks and cannot be recognised. The court said there is enough physical evidence and witness testimony.

A request to hold the pair in custody is expected, so they can be extradited to Bulgaria. If found guilty, Islam and Beitula face 3 to 12 years in prison for deliberately starting a fire that caused considerable damage.

Starlink is a satellite network run by SpaceX, the US company owned by Elon Musk. It matters a lot for internet links in Ukraine.

Arson attacks on Starlink sites in Europe have become more frequent in recent weeks, BTA reported. On 23 September, parts of a ground station of the network burned at Wola Krobowska, about 50km south of Warsaw. A link between the fires in Poland and Bulgaria has not yet been proved.