2024-07-26 14:12:24
The company said the high-speed line between Paris and eastern France was also severely disrupted due to a “malicious act near Pagny-sur-Moselle”.
Traffic was also disrupted on the Atlantic line after an “act of vandalism near the town of Courtalain”, which separates Brittany and New Aquitaine.
“Deliberate fires were started to damage our facilities. “Teams from the SNCF network have already arrived at the site to carry out diagnostics and start repair work,” French broadcaster BFMTV reported.
AFP news agency reported comments from a source close to the investigation that the arsons were “an act of sabotage”. The source added that the attacks were “clearly coordinated”, according to the news agency.
The president of the state railway company SNCF has revealed the targets of those who committed the sabotage and announced how the repair work will be carried out
According to Jean-Pierre Farandou, the attackers started a fire “in the ducts in which many (fiber optic – ed.) cables” are laid, which transmit “safety information to the drivers”, reports the AFP news agency.
“There are a lot of bundled cables. We have to fix them one by one, a manual job that requires hundreds of workers,” he adds.
According to the BFMTV channel, sabotage attempts on the southeast line from Paris were also prevented.
“It is absolutely appalling,” French Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera condemned the attacks. “To attack the Games is to attack France.”
The Prime Minister of the country spoke
French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said on Friday that the “acts of sabotage” were carried out “prepared and coordinated against SNCF infrastructure”.
In a post on the X social network, the Prime Minister said the impact on the rail network was “enormous and serious” and thanked firefighters at the scene.
He said he was thinking of all the French people who were about to go on holiday and shared their anger, adding that he thanked them for their patience.
He added that French security forces are looking for those responsible for the sabotage.
The manager of the train operator, J. Farandou, said on the air of the French television BFMTV that about 800,000 people will be affected by the sabotage during the weekend. passengers.
He added that the network was ready for the Olympics, but now plans to mobilize hundreds of workers to fix it as soon as possible.
“It’s definitely going to continue throughout the weekend because it’s going to take a long time to get everything fixed… today is a sad day,” Mr Farandou continued.
The operator’s manager said on air that France and the French were attacked today during sabotage.
“I’m thinking of all the French people who won’t be able to go on holiday today, or those who will go in worse conditions,” he says.
He emphasized that the work of the railways is a public service – to transport people when they need it, and today the company he runs could not do that.
Will cancel every fourth flight
High-speed train operator Eurostar said it would cancel one in four of its services on Friday.
According to Eurostar, this will also be the case on Saturday and Sunday, with the company expecting these disruptions to last until Monday morning.
“The company’s team stations and call centers are concentrated to ensure that all passengers are informed and able to reach their destination,” said a Eurostar spokesperson.
“Due to the coordinated acts of malicious activity in France affecting the high-speed train line between Paris and Lille, today, Friday 26 July, all high-speed trains to and from Paris are diverted on the classic line,” Eurostar said in a statement, adding that the sabotage will increase the travel time to an hour and a half.
Meanwhile, one of the first affected Eurostar London-Paris trains arrived at Gare du Nord station in Paris some time ago. Megan Murphy, 50, told the BBC it was overcrowded.
The former journalist says her train was 90 minutes late and made a brief stop in Lille to allow the train to reorient itself onto another track.
“It’s worrying how much later trains will be delayed,” she says. “It’s really not a good situation.”
Parengta pagal „Deutsche Welle“ ir BBC inf.
2024-07-26 14:12:24