PARIS, July 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — French rail company SNCF says at least 250,000 passengers are expected to be impacted by what the country’s Prime Minister Gabriel Attal described as “acts of sabotage” on Friday.
A series of fires caused the disruptions early in the morning local time, hours before the Paris Olympics opening ceremony.
Several high-speed TGV lines have been hit to the west, north and east of the capital and Eurostar has also warned customers of longer journey times and cancellations.
Nobody has claimed responsibility and Attal said that security forces were searching for those responsible. The public prosecutor’s office is also investigating.
“Early this morning, acts of sabotage were carried out in a prepared and coordinated manner on SNCF installations,” Attal wrote on social media.
SNCF earlier described the fires as a “massive attack” involving “malicious acts”. It said it was fixing the cables damaged in the attacks manually “one by one”.
As many as 800,000 people could be affected over the weekend due to the disruption, the rail company, SNCF warned.
Its head, Christophe Fanichet, said the disruption would be minimised as things improved, and that affected travellers would be reimbursed.
Fanichet has urged people not to come to the stations unless they have received communications that their trains are running.
SNCF said that emergency repairs are allowing limited services between Paris and Brittany in the west, as well as to the south-west.
Traffic is also reportedly resuming between Paris and Lille in the north, and Strasbourg in the east, but delays of up to two hours are expected for all fast speed TGV services.
Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete said that by early afternoon on Friday, “one in three” trains was operating from Paris’s Montparnasse station, which serves destinations to Bordeaux and the Atlantic coast.
Vergriete earlier said the “criminal acts” happened simultaneously and “vans were found from which people had fled, particularly in the south-east”. Flammable material was found on site.
Three main routes on the TGV line connecting Paris with cities such as Lille, Bordeaux and Strasbourg were attacked.
The authorities said they foiled a fourth attack, to the south on the Paris-Marseille line.
Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra described the attacks as “downright appalling”.
She added that the immediate impact on the public and Olympic athletes was currently being assessed, as well as the potential effect on transporting teams to competition sites over the weekend.
Paris 2024, the organiser of this year’s Olympic Games, say they are “assessing the situation” and working closely with SNCF.
The railway company’s chief-executive, Jean-Pierre Farrandou, said there was severe disruption and the impact on customers would be very significant.
But the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, said the “unacceptable” attacks have no impact on Friday evening’s opening ceremony.
More than 300,000 spectators lined the banks of the River Seine to watch thousands of athletes sail through the heart of Paris on a flotilla of barges and riverboats.
Eurostar and other high-speed services have been diverted onto different lines, causing a knock-on effect to other services.
Eurostar says it will be cancelling one in four of its services on Saturday and Sunday, adding it expects the disruption to last until Monday morning.
Among those impacted was Sir Keir Starmer. Downing Street said the prime minster was forced to fly to France due to the extensive delays on the Eurostar.
Eurostar’s Chief Commercial Officer, François Le Doze, however has said he’s confident most people in the UK will still be able to get to Paris for the Olympic Games despite the disruption.
Germany’s rail operator Deutsche Bahn has warned of disruptions to its long-distance rail network and asked passengers to check their connection before travelling.
SNCF said its teams were on site to investigate damage and begin repairs. It warned that the disruption was likely to last beyond the weekend.
It said thousands of rail workers were being deployed across the network.
“This was supposed to be a holiday,” the chief executive, Farrandou, told French TV.
“It’s the big day for going on summer holiday, and it’s also of course the opening of the Olympics with lots of French people coming to Paris to enjoy the Games and all of that’s ruined.”
The attack comes as a massive security operation is in place in the French capital, involving tens of thousands of troops and police to guard against threats to the global sporting event.
French authorities said intelligence services would find and punish those behind the “criminal acts”.
One security source suggested in French media that the arson attack bore all the hallmarks of the extreme left.
The suspected sabotage comes after a Russian man was arrested earlier this week on suspicion of involvement in a “destabilisation” plot targeting the Games.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said he was suspected of spying on behalf of Russia’s intelligence services.
No Russian link has been made by French authorities to the sabotage on the rail networks.
Russia is banned from the Olympics, although a number of the country’s athletes are competing as neutrals. — NNN-AGENCIES
