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Passengers are pictured at Gare du Nord station after threats against France’s high-speed TGV network, ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympics opening ceremony. (Reuters)
The attacks were launched as Paris prepares for the opening ceremony, with 7,500 athletes, 300,000 spectators and an audience of VIPs.
Hours before the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, the French high-speed rail network was hit by ‘malicious’ arson attacks, disrupting the transport system of the host country for the world’s biggest sporting event. Many routes are reportedly being canceled and close to 800,000 passengers have been affected following the attacks, described as coordinated acts of ‘sabotage’.
Hunt Is On
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal has said that ‘acts of sabotage’ were carried out in a ‘prepared and coordinated manner’ and have caused ‘massive and serious’ impacts on the rail network.
Attal further said that French security forces are hunting people behind arson attacks that hobbled the country’s high-speed rail network hours. “Our intelligence services and law enforcement are mobilised to find and punish the perpetrators of these criminal acts,” Attal posted on X, calling the attacks “prepared and coordinated acts of sabotage against (rail operator) SNCF’s installations” with “huge and serious consequences for the rail network”.
Tôt ce matin, des actes de sabotage ont été, de façon préparée et coordonnée, menés sur des installations de la SNCF.Les conséquences sur le réseau ferroviaire sont massives et graves.
Je dis toute ma reconnaissance à nos pompiers qui sont intervenus sur les sites touchés et…
— Gabriel Attal (@GabrielAttal) July 26, 2024
Eurostar
Eurostar said its rail services between London and Paris had been disrupted by acts of vandalism in France, resulting in several cancellations and longer journey times. “Due to coordinated acts of malice in France, affecting the high speed line between Paris and Lille, all high speed trains going to and coming from Paris are being diverted via the classic line today Friday 26 July. This extends the journey time by around an hour and a half,” Eurostar said in a statement.
“SNCF was the victim of several simultaneous malicious acts overnight,” the national train operator SNCF told AFP, adding that the attacks affected its Atlantic, northern and eastern lines. “Arson attacks were started to damage our facilities,” it said, adding that traffic on the affected lines was “heavily disrupted” and the situation would last through the weekend as repairs are conducted.
‘Outrageous criminal act’
A “massive attack” against France’s high-speed TGV rail network was an “outrageous criminal act”, Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete said Friday. There would be “very serious consequences” for rail traffic throughout the weekend with connections towards northern, eastern and northwestern France halved, Vergriete said, while rail operator SNCF chief executive Jean-Pierre Farandou said 800,000 passengers were affected.
BREAKING:A massive sabotage attack against France’s high-speed railway system strands thousands of passengers at railway stations across France.
Arsonists & hackers attack in unison. Russia?
The opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics takes place today pic.twitter.com/sknuteDyFd
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) July 26, 2024
Trains were being diverted to different tracks “but we will have to cancel a large number of them”, the statement said. The southeastern line was not affected as “a malicious act was foiled”. SNCF urged passengers to postpone their trips and stay away from train stations.
The attacks were launched as Paris was under heavy security ahead of the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics, with 300,000 spectators and an audience of VIPs expected at the event. The parade on Friday evening will see up to 7,500 competitors travel down a six-kilometre (four-mile) stretch of the river Seine on a flotilla of 85 boats.
It will be the first time a Summer Olympics has opened outside the main athletics stadium, a decision fraught with danger at a time when France is on its highest alert for terror attacks. At Paris’s Montparnasse train station, dozens of passengers were waiting for more information about their trips after delays of 30 minutes to almost two hours were announced.
“Normal traffic is expected to resume on Monday, July 29,” read one of the signs in the departure hall. “We arrived around 7:00 am but we were told that we might not be able to leave before Monday,” said 27-year-old student Jocelyn, who had planned to travel to Bretagne and refused to give her full name. “We expected it to be a bit chaotic in Paris with the opening ceremony scheduled for this evening, but we didn’t think it could be this bad,” she said.
(With agency inputs)
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