SNCF: France’s high-speed train lines disrupted by ‘coordinated sabotage’ ahead of Paris Olympics opening ceremony

Paris
CNN
 — 

France’s high-speed train lines were targeted by multiple “malicious” acts including arson on Friday, in what has been described as “an attack on France” and “coordinated sabotage” to disrupt travel ahead of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics.

The French state railway company SNCF said in a post on X that “a large number of trains were diverted or canceled,” and asked “all travelers who can to postpone their trip and not go to the station.” By Friday afternoon its services had partially resumed though widespread disruption continued.

No-one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but given their scale and precision, it is clear they are more than just random acts of vandalism.

An intelligence source told CNN that French intelligence services are “fully mobilized” to find those responsible. The source added that “these methods have been used by the far-left in the past” but “there is no evidence to tie today’s actions to them.”

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 “foiled” in the east after SNCF agents scared off several individuals. The Atlantic line services the west and southwest of France from Paris, the Northern line takes travelers from the French capital to Lille and the Eastern line journeys from Paris to Strasbourg.

SNCF CEO Jean-Pierre Farandou told journalists on Friday that cables – which are there to ensure the security of train drivers – were set on fire and taken apart but that authorities “don’t know who is behind it.”

But it was likely someone who had very “precise information” that was behind the attack, according to Axel Persson, a leader of the CGT rail union.

He told CNN that a railway worker or industrial espionage might be to blame, but also underlined that it was thanks to railway workers that one of the attacks was foiled.

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The Paris prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into the attack and detailed four separate charges, relating to the damage of state property and taking part in organized crime. Some of the crimes listed are punishable by up to 20 years’ imprisonment and a fine of €300,000 ($325,000). Outgoing French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said on Friday afternoon he was not aware of any arrests so far.

Following emergency repairs, most trains on the eastern network were running with delays of about an hour by Friday afternoon but only a third of trains were running on the Atlantic side, regional SNCF director Frank Dubourdieu told reporters in a news conference.

Disruptions – which SNCF estimated could impact around 250,000 travelers today – were expected throughout the weekend, affecting 800,000 passengers, as work crews oversee repairs, it added.

Passengers milled around outside Paris’ Gare du Nord train station and sat with their luggage on staircases as the disruption laid waste to their travel plans. Francoise, an 80-year-old from La Rochelle, was trying to get home and back to her nurse after medical treatment in Paris.

She told CNN she was preparing to wait another five hours in the forlorn hope of catching a train. “We didn’t need a day like this!” she said.

Meanwhile, a couple stuck at Gare Montparnasse were forced to watch their friends’ wedding ceremony by phone on Friday. Alexandre and Camille were hoping to reach the western city of Poitiers for the civil ceremony, according to CNN affiliate BFMTV, but watched it on a video call since they were unable to rent a car. They should be able to get to Poitiers for the secular ceremony over the weekend, Alexandre added.

“I don’t know where to go. I was only here to change trains,” Marguerite, a 24-year-old professor, told CNN in Gare Montparnasse as she tried to make her way home to Brittany, northwest France. “I’m trying to call friends to see where I can sleep tonight … We are blocked here.”

Two trains carrying Olympic athletes were also affected. Dubourdieu told journalists that “of all four Olympic trains, only two were able to run, one was canceled and a third is being prepared.”

Repair works should take at least a day but could take longer on the Atlantic line, Dubourdieu said, as the company attempts to source cables from all over France.

Farandou explained that they have to pull the damaged cables back together one by one, reconnect and test them. “It’s a question of security,” he said. “We have to make sure we test them so when trains are back up and running, they are safe.”

Eurostar, the high-speed train service that connects the United Kingdom with France, is canceling a quarter of its trains this weekend due to the “coordinated acts of malice” on French lines. It is encouraging customers to postpone their trip if possible, it said in a statement.

These incidents come just hours before the Olympic torch relay concludes and the opening ceremony begins, with more than 320,000 spectators expected to attend along the River Seine. The opening ceremony will go ahead as planned, a Paris 2024 spokesperson told CNN, and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach told reporters he has “full confidence” in the French authorities and security protocols already in place.

Speaking to BFMTV, Oudéa-Castera condemned the attacks in the “strongest possible terms,” and said it is “truly appalling.”

The French minister of sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Amélie Oudéa-Castera, said the disruption to the train lines are “a sort of coordinated sabotage.”

“We will assess the impacts on travelers, athletes, and ensure the proper transport of all delegations to the competition sites,” she said.

Other French officials agreed that the attacks were intentional. Attal said the incidents were “prepared and organized” in a way that “shows a kind of knowledge of the network in order to know where to strike,” while the SNCF called the disruption an “attack on France.”

In response to the attacks, Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said Friday that police are stepping up security and focusing manpower on the capital’s train stations.

Security in Paris had already been bolstered in recent weeks.

France plans to deploy around 35,000 police each day during the Games, peaking at 45,000 for the opening ceremony, a spokesperson at the French interior ministry previously told CNN. In addition, 10,000 soldiers will be deployed in the Paris region – an effort supported by 1,800 police officers from around the world, they added.

Nicolas Nordman, deputy Paris mayor in charge of security, recently told CNN that authorities had been working for months to try to anticipate what might happen and were confident the ceremony would be safe.

Bach, the IOC president, said that intelligence agencies of other countries are also involved in the games’ security.

“The French authorities are assisted by 180 other intelligence services around the world. Not only by information, some of them are even deploying their human resources, so we have good reason to have full confidence,” he said.

There has been growing domestic unrest in France, powered in part by recent national elections that saw a battle between the left and far-right.

Interior Minister Darmanin confirmed security forces had detained a “member of the extreme-right” this week who was “suspected of wanting to commit violent action during the Olympic Games.” According to Darmanin, the man had an “intention to intervene during a phase of the torch relay.”

At the same time, France has been among many European countries impacted by a wave of attacks that have been linked by officials to Russia. They have included arson and acts of sabotage against infrastructure. Russia has not responded to the allegations.

Earlier this week, French authorities detained a Russian citizen in Paris, accusing him of preparing destabilizing events during the Olympics. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia did not have any information on the arrest.

This is a developing story and will be updated.