France\u2019s high-speed train lines were targeted by multiple \u201cmalicious\u201d acts including arson on Friday, in what has been described as \u201can attack on France\u201d and \u201ccoordinated sabotage\u201d to disrupt travel ahead of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics. <\/p>\n
The French state railway company SNCF called the overnight disruption a \u201cmassive attack aimed at paralyzing the high-speed line network.\u201d <\/p>\n
In a post on X, <\/strong>SNCF said that \u201ca large number of trains were diverted or canceled,\u201d and asked \u201call travelers who can to postpone their trip and not go to the station.\u201d <\/p>\n The operator said the Atlantic, Northern and Eastern high-speed lines were impacted, with damage caused to several of its facilities, adding that one of the acts was \u201cfoiled\u201d in the east after SNCF agents scared off several individuals. <\/p>\n SNCF CEO Jean-Pierre Farandou told journalists on Friday that cables \u2013 which are there to ensure the security of train drivers \u2013 were set on fire and taken apart but that authorities \u201cdon\u2019t know who is behind it.\u201d <\/p>\n Travel on the affected lines is \u201cvery disrupted,\u201d with the railway network needing to divert and cancel a large number of trains, SNCF said. Disruptions \u2013 which it estimates could impact around 250,000 travelers today \u2013 were expected throughout the weekend, affecting 800,000 passengers, as work crews oversee repairs, it added. <\/p>\n The R\u00e9mi Train Centre Val de Loire said travel on its railway lines would be disrupted until at least Monday, with a fire near the tracks in Courtalain, northern France impacting services to Paris. <\/p>\n Farandou explained that they have to pull the damaged cables back together one by one, reconnect and test them. \u201cIt\u2019s a question of security,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have to make sure we test them so when trains are back up and running, they are safe.\u201d <\/p>\n Brittany, a region in the northwest France, and the north of the country are the most impacted areas, SNCF said, though some trains have started running again, notably in eastern France. There would be no trains from Paris\u2019 Gare Montparnasse, however, until at least 1 p.m. local time, Christophe Fanichet \u2013 the CEO of SNCF Voyageurs \u2013 told reporters. <\/p>\n Eurostar, the high-speed train service that connects the United Kingdom with France, has been forced to cancel and divert trains due to the \u201ccoordinated acts of malice,\u201d on French lines. <\/p>\n The French Minister of Sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Am\u00e9lie Oud\u00e9a-Castera said the disruption to the train lines are \u201ca sort of coordinated sabotage.\u201d <\/p>\n Speaking BFMTV, Oud\u00e9a-Castera condemned the attacks in the \u201cstrongest possible terms,\u201d and said it is \u201ctruly appalling.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cWe will assess the impacts on travelers, athletes, and ensure the proper transport of all delegations to the competition sites,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n Other French officials echoed her description of the attacks being intentional. Outgoing French transport minister Patrice Vergriete and Valerie Pecresse, head of the \u00cele-de-France region, in which Paris lies, said on Friday that \u201call elements\u201d pointed towards it being a \u201cdeliberate attack.\u201d Vergriete added those elements were \u201cthe coincidental timing, the vans found after the people had fled (and) the arson materials found on location.\u201d <\/p>\n Outgoing French prime minister Gabriel Attal said in a post on X that the consequences are \u201cmassive and serious\u201d while SNCF called the disruption an \u201cattack on France.\u201d <\/p>\n In response to the attacks, Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said Friday that police are stepping up security and focusing manpower on the capital\u2019s train stations. <\/p>\n Security in Paris had already been bolstered in recent weeks. <\/p>\n The cause of the disruptions is currently unclear. But there has been growing domestic unrest, powered in part by recent national elections that saw a battle between the left and far-right. <\/p>\n Interior Minister Darmanin confirmed security forces had detained a \u201cmember of the extreme-right\u201d this week who was \u201csuspected of wanting to commit violent action during the Olympic Games.\u201d According to Darmanin, the man had an \u201cintention to intervene during a phase of the torch relay.\u201d <\/p>\n This is a developing story and will be updated. <\/em> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" France\u2019s high-speed train lines were targeted by multiple \u201cmalicious\u201d acts including arson on Friday, in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5833,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}