PARIS: The run-up to the formal Opening Ceremony to the Olympic Games in Paris was disrupted overnight by a co-ordinated sabotage attack on the French high-speed rail network.
With most of the athletes and officials already in the French capital the victims who had trains and plans wrecked were sports fans, holidaymakers and the normal commuting public.
French rail company SNCF said several high-speed TGV lines had been hit by “acts of vandalism”, leaving trains cancelled and queues forming. It warned the consequent confusion could last “at least all weekend.”
Writing on X, French prime minister Gabriel Attal said the consequences of the “acts of sabotage” were “massive and serious”.
SNCF said a series of incidents overnight had affected travel to and from London beneath the Channel, to Belgium and across the west, north and east of France.
French transport minister Patrice Vergriete told broadcasters incendiary devices had been discovered and people had fled from fires. In total, three fires were reported near the tracks of the French Atlantique, Nord and Est high-speed lines by local media.
‘Vandalism’
SNCF said in a statement: “Last night, the SNCF was victim of several acts of vandalism on the Atlantic, Northern and Eastern high-speed lines. Fires were deliberately set to damage our installations. This is a massive attack on a large scale to paralyse the TGV network.”
Eurostar services from London St Pancras to Paris and Lille were affected with the cancellation of one in every four trains from Friday to Sunday and extending journey times. Customers were advised to cancel trips where possible.
Transport minister Vergriete wrote on X: “I strongly condemn these criminal actions which will compromise the vacation departures of many French people. A big thank you to the #SNCF teams, on the bridge to restore traffic conditions as quickly as possible.”
French sports minister Amelie Oudea-Castera told Sky News: “We’re still in the process of analysing all the impacts, accessing what we’re going to implement as solutions because it’s going to have impacts also over the weekend.”
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