More travel chaos expected after massive attack on French rail

PARIS - French rail officials warned of travel chaos for hundreds of thousands of people throughout the weekend after saboteurs following a meticulous plan paralysed much of the train network on July 26 as the Olympic Games started.

No immediate claim of responsibility was made for the

arson attacks on cabling boxes

at junctions strategically picked out north, south-west and east of the capital where the Olympics opening ceremony was staged on the night of July 26. Rail workers thwarted a fourth attempt to destroy safety equipment.

The SNCF rail company called it a “massive attack”.

“Our intelligence services and law enforcement are mobilised to find and punish the perpetrators of these criminal acts,” Prime Minister Gabriel Attal posted on X, calling the attacks “prepared and coordinated acts of sabotage”.

Services from Paris to much of France saw mass cancellations and delays.

The Eurostar company said it scrapped about a quarter of its trains between London, Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam. It predicted cancelling about a fifth of trains over the weekend and all services will face delays.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer had to take a plane instead of a high-speed train to the Olympics ceremony. Four special trains bringing Olympic athletes to Paris, including some US team members, went ahead, SNCF said.

With one of France’s busiest holiday travel weekends clashing with the start of the Olympics, SNCF said about a quarter of trains will be cancelled on July 27 and 28 on the lines attacked. Trains that run will face delays.

The company said thousands of staff worked to repair the damage and try to get services running again.

It estimated that 250,000 passengers were affected on July 26. Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete said 800,000 could face the fallout over the three days.

The coordinated attacks were staged at 4am.

At each site, the perpetrators targeted fibre-optic cables that carry safety information for drivers and control rail changes, SNCF chief executive Jean-Pierre Farandou said.

Mr Gerard Due, Mayor of Croisilles in northern France, one of the sites hit, said the attackers had specialised equipment to access the cables and then “threw flammable liquid” on them.

Mr Vergriete said the saboteurs had been spotted with “vans”, while “incendiary devices were found at the scene”.

Paris prosecutors opened an investigation into attacks on “the fundamental interests of the nation” and criminal conspiracy.

A similar sabotage attack was staged in Germany last year and in eastern France in January 2023.

The attacks left passengers stranded at stations across Paris and in many cities in eastern, western and northern France.

Some at Montparnasse station in Paris were left in tears.

Mr Charles Fazio, a 70-year-old American from Florida, went to the station to try to get information. “I don’t understand anything,” he said. “We have to go to Lille tomorrow for the Olympics.”

French security forces are on their highest alert to prevent attacks during the Paris Olympics.

Workers carrying out maintenance at Vergigny, south-east of Paris, stopped one attempted attack there.

French officials refused to comment on the identity of the saboteurs.

Far-left French anarchists have a history of targeting the train network with arson attacks. The arson method used resembled past attacks by extreme-left activists, a security source told AFP.

President Emmanuel Macron has said in the past that Russia was planning to target the Games. Police arrested a Russian man this week in Paris who was suspected of “organising events likely to lead to destabilisation during the Olympic Games”. AFP