German police detain Russian over Qilin hack linked to London hospital death

German police have detained a 28-year-old Russian man, named by German press as Vladimir K., over his alleged role in the Qilin cyber-crime gang, which is accused of a 2024 hack on blood-testing company Synnovis that disrupted London hospitals and contributed to a patient's death. The suspect was arrested in Japan in May during a holiday and later detained upon arrival in Frankfurt, the BBC reports. German detectives are now including the Synnovis incident in their investigation into him and his associates.

Synnovis is a diagnostics and pathology service that operates as a partnership between hospitals and German company Synlab. On 3 June 2024, Qilin targeted the provider, leading to a critical incident at some London hospitals. Blood transfusion services were severely disrupted, operations were cancelled and emergency patients were diverted elsewhere. King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, one of the two trusts heavily impacted, confirmed a year after the hack that one patient had "died unexpectedly". A spokesperson said a number of contributing factors led to the death, including "a long wait for a blood test result". The attack was the first cyber attack in history to be directly linked to a death. The BBC has also learned British police are examining whether their own inquiry may lead to an unlawful killing case, potentially a world first in cyber-crime.

The Synnovis attack disrupted more than 10,000 appointments and caused weeks of disruption. The hackers threatened to publish data on their dark net website unless Synnovis paid a ransom. After no ransom was paid, they published highly private data online. At the time, they told the BBC the hack was not just for money but to protest the UK's lack of help in the Russian war on Ukraine. They did not say whether they were from Russia or Ukraine, and their claims were dismissed as an attempt to distance themselves from the extortion tactics Qilin were known for.

Qilin has been tracked since 2022 and is behind a string of criminal hacks targeting schools, hospitals, companies, councils and health organisations. The group was also behind a disruptive hack on Japanese beer maker Asahi in October 2025. The detained suspect was wanted in Germany for hacking a logistics company in September 2024, encrypting data and extorting it for around $160,000 in cryptocurrency. Qilin has allegedly hacked more than 4,000 organisations since 2024 and extorted more than $140m (£105m) from victims.

A similar 2020 attack by a different hacker group on a hospital in Düsseldorf, Germany, led to a negligent homicide investigation after an elderly patient died. It was later dropped after medical experts concluded the patient's condition was so severe they would have died regardless of the cyber-attack, and prosecutors could not definitively prove it was the direct cause of death. It is very rare for hackers to be arrested in Russia, as its government refuses to co-operate with Western law enforcement requests.

Source: BBC Technology.