Saboteurs launch ‘malicious’ arson attack on France’s rail networks hours before Paris Olympics
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Saboteurs have launched a “malicious” arson attack on France’s rail networks in “an effort to destabilise France” just hours before the start of the Paris Olympic Games.
Up to 800,000 passengers will face travel chaos this weekend after high-speed rail services to the French capital were hit by what officials described as “criminal actions” and sabotage ahead of the opening ceremony on Friday.
The chief executive of France’s rail operator SNCF said the “French are under attack”, after a series of fires brought trains to a halt, causing the cancellation of multiple services linking Paris to the rest of France as well as neighbouring countries.
French Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete said there have been a series of “coordinated malicious acts”. He described people fleeing from the scene of fires and the discovery of incendiary devices, adding: “Everything indicates that these are criminal fires.”
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Describing the consequences for the rail network as “massive and serious”, French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal vowed authorities will “find and punish the perpetrators of these criminal acts”. National police said authorities were investigating the incidents.
Amid disruption on the Atlantic, North and East lines of the SNCF rail network, French Police also said a bomb alert forced the evacuation of the Franco-Swiss airport of Basel-Mulhouse on Friday following a routine safety protocol. However, the airport added it was resuming operations at midday.
The Kremlin said on Friday it had read “curious information” about the arrest of a 40-year-old Russian man suspected of planning to sabotage the Olympic Games. French Police have not publicly stated any link between the Russian national’s arrest on Wednesday and the arson attack.
With up to 250,000 passengers set to be affected by the travel disruption on Friday, SNCF chief Jean-Pierre Faranadou told BFMTV he is “absolutely sorry” after the plans of thousands who had hoped to come to Paris for the Games had been “ruined”.
Valerie Pecresse, president of the Paris region, added: “This attack is not a coincidence, it’s an effort to destabilise France.”
Three fires were reported near the tracks on the high-speed lines of Atlantique, Nord and Est as Paris authorities geared up for a parade along the Seine River amid tightened security for Paris 2024.
The disruption particularly affected Paris’s major Montparnasse station. Videos posted on social networks showed the hall of the station saturated with passengers.
The Paris police prefecture “concentrated its personnel in Parisian train stations” after the “massive attack” that paralysed the TGV high-speed network, Laurent Nunez, the city police chief, told France Info television.
Travel to and from London beneath the English Channel, to neighbouring Belgium, and across the west, north, and east of France was affected.
One in four Eurostar trains will be cancelled on Friday and over the weekend, the company said.
SNCF said areas affecting rail track intersections were intentionally targeted by the arsonists to double the impact.
“For one fire, two destinations were hit,” said chief executive Jean-Pierre Farandou.
It was “a premeditated, calculated, co-ordinated attack” that indicates “a desire to seriously harm” the French people, he added.
Government officials denounced the acts, though they said there was no immediate sign of a direct link to the Olympics.
Sports minister Amelie Oudea-Castera said authorities were working to “evaluate the impact on travellers, athletes, and ensure the transport of all delegations to the competition sites” for the Olympics.
Speaking on BFM television, she added: “Playing against the Games is playing against France, against your own camp, against your country.”
Passengers at St Pancras station in London were warned to expect delays of around an hour to their Eurostar journeys. Announcements in the departure hall at the international terminus informed travellers heading to Paris that there was a problem with overhead power supplies.
The attacks occurred against a backdrop of global tensions and heightened security measures as the city prepared for the Games. Many people were planning to converge on the capital for the opening ceremony, and many holidaymakers were also in transit.
SNCF said it did not know when traffic would resume and feared that disruption would continue “at least all weekend”.
Teams were “already on site to carry out diagnostics and begin repairs”, but the “situation should last at least all weekend while the repairs are carried out”, the operator said.
SNCF advised “all passengers to postpone their journey and not to go to the station”, specifying in its press release that all tickets are exchangeable and refundable.
Valerie Pecresse, president of the regional council of the greater Paris region, said “250,000 travellers will be affected today on all these lines”. Substitution plans are under way but she advised travellers “not to go to stations”.
