The invention relates to a pluggable surge arrester comprising one or several overvoltage protection elements which are disposed within a structural unit comprising an optical fault indicator. The inventive surge arrester further comprises a thermal overcurrent protector (5) that encompasses an actuator for triggering a remote signalisation contact in order to indicate a fault. The structural unit comprises two chambers. The first lower chamber (1) accommodates an encapsulated spark gap or similar arrangement and the front sides of the lower chamber (1) are formed or delimited by plug-in contact surfaces (3) which are, respectively, electrically connected to the spark gap (2). A second upper chamber (4) accommodates the overcurrent protector. A partition (6) that fixes a wiring support (7) is provided between the lower and upper chambers. The plug-in contact surfaces (3) comprise a stabilisation bend (8) and extend into at least two connection lugs (9), the lower edges thereof respectively comprising a sliding or insertion ramp (10), the connection lugs (9) of the respective front sides being parallel in relation to each other.