French security forces are hunting the people behind Friday’s arson attacks that hobbled the country’s high-speed rail network hours before the Olympic Games opening ceremony and disrupted travel for hundreds of thousands of passengers on Friday.
According to French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, “Our intelligence services and law enforcement are mobilised to find and punish the perpetrators of these criminal acts,” Attal posted on X, calling the attacks “prepared and coordinated acts of sabotage against (rail operator) SNCF’s installations” with “huge and serious consequences for the rail network”.
France’s high-speed rail network was hit by arson attacks, hours before the opening ceremony of the Olympics, in what a source close to the investigation told AFP were coordinated acts of “sabotage”.
“This is a massive attack on a large scale to paralyse the TGV network,” SNCF told AFP, adding that many routes would be cancelled.
“SNCF was the victim of several simultaneous malicious acts overnight,” the national train operator said.
“Arson attacks were started to damage our facilities,” it said, adding that traffic on the affected lines was “heavily disrupted” and the situation would last through the weekend as repairs are conducted.
SNCF chief executive Jean-Pierre Farandou said 800,000 passengers were affected.
Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete called the attacks an “outrageous criminal act” that would have “very serious consequences” for rail traffic throughout the weekend.
He said connections towards northern, eastern and northwestern France would be halved.
SNCF said trains were being diverted to different tracks “but we will have to cancel a large number of them”.
Several Eurostar trains between Paris and London were cancelled following the attacks, with the remaining trains diverted onto a different track.
Olympics under heavy security
The attacks were launched as Paris was under heavy security ahead of the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics, with 300,000 spectators and an audience of VIPs expected at the event.
The parade on Friday evening will see up to 7,500 competitors travel down a six-kilometre (four-mile) stretch of the river Seine on a flotilla of 85 boats.
It will be the first time a Summer Olympics has opened outside the main athletics stadium, a decision fraught with danger at a time when France is on its highest alert for terror attacks.
At Paris’s Montparnasse train station, passengers were waiting for more information about their trips, with display boards showing delays of more than two hours.
The station’s loudspeakers told passengers that conditions to exchange and refund tickets would be more flexible.
With AFP
