Suspected arson attacks on French rail network ahead of opening of Olympic Games on Friday described by prime minister Gabriel Attal as “coordinated sabotage actions” have caused chaos and major inconvenience to travelers.
Unknown individuals placed firebombs at several key locations along the railway line during the night, further increasing the already high fear of attacks in France.
On Friday afternoon, the French national railway company SNCF reported that progress had been made in repairing the damage and restoring high-speed service across the country. However, they said that some lines were still out of service and that delays would continue into the weekend.
Attal wrote on the social media platform X that the consequences of the “coordinated sabotage actions” on the railway network on the day of the opening of the Olympic Games were enormous and serious.
“Our intelligence and law enforcement agencies are being mobilized to find and punish the perpetrators of these criminal acts,” Attal wrote.
According to SNCF, some 800,000 people were affected by train cancellations as a result of the attacks.
On Friday, the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office announced that an investigation has been launched into suspected destruction of property serving the country’s fundamental interests.
“SNCF has been the victim of multiple simultaneous intentional damage to the Atlantic, Northern and Eastern high-speed lines,” SNCF said.
The Atlantic axis connects the southwest with Paris, the Northern axis includes the Eurostar service to the Channel and London, and the Eastern axis connects the southwest with Strasbourg.
One in four Eurostar trains will be cancelled on Friday and over the weekend because of the attack, the PA news agency reports.
The fires were started in Vergigny southeast of Paris, Courtalain southwest, Croisilles to the north and Pagny-sur-Moselle to the east, the SNCF reported.
According to the SNCF, an attack on the southeastern axis was prevented.
On Friday afternoon, the SNCF reported that one in three scheduled trains on the high-speed line from Paris to the southwest is running again, but that passengers should expect delays of up to two hours.
On the high-speed line to the north, which also carries trains from Cologne, London and Brussels, there are still occasional train cancellations and similar delays.
On the eastern line, trains between Paris and Nancy/Metz are running as planned again after repair work, SNCF said. On the eastern route from Paris to Strasbourg, there are still delays of around an hour and some train cancellations, SNCF said.
On Saturday, trains on the eastern line towards Strasbourg and further to Germany will run as planned, SNCF announced on Friday evening. This means that trains between Paris and Frankfurt/Main and Stuttgart will also run normally.
On the northbound route, 80% of the scheduled trains will run from Saturday, albeit with a delay of one to two hours. This is because the high-speed line cannot yet be fully utilised.
“We can assume that the attacks were planned and calculated,” said SNCF chief Jean-Pierre Farandou. The locations of the fires correspond to nodes on the network, he said.
Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete and Prime Minister Attal are currently serving in an interim capacity following snap elections a month ago. President Emmanuel Macron has said he will keep the outgoing government in place for the duration of the Olympics.
Security measures are being stepped up, Laurent Nuñez, prefect of the Paris police, told the website of broadcaster FranceInfo. His police force is “concentrating its personnel in stations in Paris.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called the attack “absolutely reprehensible” during a speech at the German embassy in Paris.
“Disrupting such a celebration of peace with violent acts can never be accepted and requires the most resolute rejection,” Scholz said.
He hoped “that the French authorities would quickly succeed in identifying the perpetrators.”
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, meanwhile, said authorities in both countries were still working together. She said German police and security services were supporting French authorities during the Olympics, just as French police helped Germany during the recent European Football Championship.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach said on Friday he was not concerned about the security situation.
“We have full confidence in the French authorities,” Bach said, stressing that all necessary security measures have been taken. He also explained that France was supported by more than 180 foreign intelligence services.
“The serious acts of sabotage on the French railway network show how serious the threat in Europe currently is and how important strict security measures are to protect the Olympic Games,” German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said on Friday ahead of the opening ceremony of the Summer Games in Paris.
The Paris Olympics officially begin with a unique show in the middle of the Seine on Friday night. For the first time in the history of the Summer Games, the opening ceremony will not take place in a stadium.
The unique event is being watched over by around 45,000 security personnel. The airspace within a 150-kilometre radius of Paris is being closed for the evening. The areas along the Seine where the parade takes place are largely closed to car traffic.
