2024-07-27 08:48:56
CTK
Updated 15 hours ago
The French high-speed rail network faced coordinated arson sabotage at night with the aim of fundamentally disrupting traffic in France and especially in Paris. This was reported by the French railway carrier SNCF on Friday morning. The sabotage affected at least 800,000 passengers and several international connections. The tracks are monitored by dozens of police teams and drones.
According to the SNCF, France’s high-speed railway faced coordinated arson sabotage overnight with the aim of fundamentally disrupting traffic in France, and in particular in Paris, ahead of the start of the Olympics. A number of domestic connections were cancelled, as well as lines to London, Brussels or Germany. Around 2:00 p.m., part of the trains have already started, however, the difficulties will last at least until the end of the weekend.
SNCF said in the early evening that two-thirds of TGV high-speed trains will run on the line between Brittany and the southwest of the country on Saturday, 80 percent of them on the northern line and all of them in the east of France. However, connections may experience delays.
All French intelligence services are involved in the investigation of the attack. Similarly, the far left had previously attacked, a security source told AFP. However, the perpetrators of the latest sabotage still remain unknown.
The SNCF reported a “large-scale coordinated massive attack to paralyze” high-speed TGV trains. “We have diverted some (TGV) trains to regular lines, but we will have to cancel many of them. The situation will last at least the whole weekend, which will be the time necessary for repairs,” SNCF said in an earlier statement. The company released footage of its employees repairing damaged cables, “replacing and testing one by one.” According to the media, SNCF will file a criminal complaint against an unknown perpetrator.
Early in the morning, the attackers damaged the infrastructure in four carefully selected nodes key to the main lines. In the tunnels, they first cut and then set fire to the cable bundles that control, among other things, the train signaling, SNCF management said at a press conference. One attack, which would have been the fifth, was stopped before it began. During the night, maintenance workers on the track noticed a van and people who were in places where entry is prohibited. The police confiscated their car, but the crew escaped.
The sabotage affected at least 800,000 passengers, of which 250,000 were in the Ile-de-France region, which surrounds Paris.
The National Office for the Fight against Organized Crime (Junalco) took over the investigation. Perpetrators of damage to property important to the running of the state, damage to automated data processing systems and conspiracy to commit these crimes face up to 20 years behind bars and a fine of 150,000 euros (3.8 million crowns), Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau announced.
The situation was most tense at the Montparnasse station, where the TGV high-speed trains depart. The station announced around 11:00 a.m. that no trains would leave the station until at least 1:00 p.m. The railway has promised to reimburse all passengers who miss their connections in full. BFM TV reported on train delays of more than two hours and an “exodus to the bus station”, where people are looking for alternative solutions for their journeys. Flixbus in France reports an increase in the number of tickets sold by 15 percent.
The northern Paris-Lille line was completely out of service, traffic to the east, southeast and west of Paris was also severely disrupted. The western line was the most damaged, where about 50 connections were canceled since morning. To the north, part of the trains are still not running, other connections are about an hour late. The eastern direction has been fully restored, the delay is 90 minutes, said Franck Debourdieu for the management of TGV Atlantique.
The Summer Olympics officially begin in Paris on Friday evening. The ceremony on the Seine is accompanied by considerable security measures, including a no-fly zone within a radius of 150 kilometers from the metropolis. In recent days, police in France have detained several people they suspect of planning terrorist attacks in connection with the Olympics. Arrests were also made in Belgium on suspicion of terrorism. There are also concerns about possible efforts to disrupt the games by Russia or Iran.