Arson attacks target France’s high speed trains hours before Olympics

PARIS — On the eve of the Paris Olympic Games, France was hit by arson attacks on its high speed rail network, fraying nerves and disrupting travel ahead of the Opening Ceremonies.

Gabriel Attal, the French caretaker prime minister, said Friday that “acts of sabotage” were carried out in a “prepared and coordinated manner.” Lines running east, west and north of Paris were hit. Attal said “nerve centers” were targeted, suggesting “a certain knowledge of the network.”

It was not immediately clear who was behind the suspected attacks and authorities did not announce any arrests. The public prosecutor’s office opened an investigation within its organized crime framework rather than a counterterrorism inquiry, indicating that a range of individuals or groups could be responsible.

Jean Castex, the head of the Paris transport system and a former French prime minister, ordered an “increased level of vigilance” across the capital region’s network. “We are deploying on all terrains,” he said, according to the French public broadcaster, with a particular focus “on the sensitive sites of our networks.”

Nobody was reported to have been injured, but French officials said the impact for travelers and the country’s reputation ahead of the Olympic Games are severe. “The consequences on the rail network are massive and serious,” Attal said in a post on X, adding that “our intelligence services and law enforcement are mobilized to find and punish the perpetrators of these criminal acts.”

On Friday evening, the spectacular opening of the games went ahead as planned, despite some rain.

French train lines hit by ‘malicious acts’ disrupting traffic ahead of Olympics, rail company says (Video: AP)

Security has been a major priority in the run-up to the Paris Games, with most preparations kept under wraps but plans announced for the deployment of 15,000 soldiers, 35,000 police and 22,000 private contractors working in and around the stadiums and sports facilities across the country.

The main security concern was expected to be a terrorist attack, as happened in Paris in 2015 or Nice in 2016, but there are also fears of cyberattacks. France’s cybersecurity agency was quick to issue a statement Friday that the train disruptions did not have a cyber element.

There has been added worry over reports that Russia has been paying amateur saboteurs to carry out operations throughout Europe. On Tuesday, French police detained a Russian national in connection with a suspected plot to cause “destabilization” during the Games, prosecutors said.

The tensions in the Middle East have been a major factor for security considerations at the Games as well, with armed guards escorting the Israeli athletes into their first soccer match against Mali on Wednesday amid protests over the war in the Gaza Strip. There have also been online threats against the Israeli team, evoking memories of the terrorist attack that killed Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Games.

France and other European countries have seen suspected arson attacks on their railway systems before, usually attributed to criminals and at times to political activists, although the scale of this incident and timing with the Olympic Games put these latest incidents in a new light.

France’s railway network was in some ways an obvious target ahead of the Opening Ceremonies. For weeks ahead of the Olympics, tickets into and out of Paris were unavailable for purchase for this Friday, with SNCF citing a lack of clarity about security measures.

The apparent sabotage targeted three French high-speed train lines, just as about 250,000 people were expected to travel Friday and 800,000 during the weekend.

So far it seems to have had a lesser effect on the Olympic Games than on the Parisians seeking to escape their city to begin the much-hallowed national tradition of August holidays.

The last weekend of July is usually one of France’s busiest travel periods, as Parisians head off for vacation. Unlike in normal years, many travelers were also expected to head into the capital city to attend the Opening Ceremonies or Olympic competitions in the coming days.

“We have damage and intentional fires in pipes where a lot of cables pass, cables that are used for signaling,” Jean-Pierre Farandou, the head of SNCF, told reporters. “They must be repaired, cable by cable. It’s very delicate work.”

Before railway traffic can resume, Farandou said, all repaired signals will need to be tested. “It takes time,” he said.

The Eurostar train, one of the principal transport lines from the United Kingdom to the European continent, also announced delays “due to coordinated acts of vandalism in France, affecting the high speed line between Paris and Lille” and listed trains arriving in France an hour and a half later than scheduled. It advised travelers to postpone their trips and said a quarter of its train routes had been canceled through the weekend.

“At this stage, it is probably one or several acts of vandalism, a kind of coordinated sabotage,” French Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra told Le Parisien. “We will evaluate the impact for today, for travelers, the impact for the athletes and for this weekend.”

The SNCF said its teams were on-site to ascertain the problem and begin repairs. “Some trains are diverted, a large number of trains are canceled,” it said.

Attal thanked “firefighters who intervened on the affected sites” and “the SNCF agents who will carry out the necessary work to restore the network” — as well as impacted travelers for “their patience, their understanding and the civic-mindedness they demonstrate.”

Travelers wait at Gare du Nord after French train lines were hit by ‘malicious acts’ disrupting traffic ahead of Olympics opening ceremonies. (Video: AP)

Eloise Lecat sat on the floor of Gare Montparnasse, the Paris train station most affected by the disruptions, with her giant suitcase and her 3-year-old daughter, Léonie, on the floor in front of her.

They were heading to Pays Basque to visit Lecat’s mother for August vacation — which coincides with the Olympic Games this year. But their 10:15 a.m. train was canceled due to the overnight disruptions, so Lecat was frantically searching for other transport options — bus, car or anything to get them out of Paris. Léonie was eager to see her cousins, Lecat said. “We will look for a good solution and see what happens.”

Bisset reported from London. Claire Parker in Paris and Paul Schemm in London contributed to this report

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