An attack on the French high-speed rail system caused a massive disruption to the train network on the eve of the Olympic games in Paris.
National Company of the French Railways (SNCF), France’s state-owned railway company, shared news of the incident early Friday morning, calling it “a massive attack aimed at paralyzing the network.”
According to SNCF, someone set fire to the electrical and signal installations on the high-speed lines running out of Paris. Authorities said they foiled an additional attack on the line running between Paris and Lyon.
ℹ️ Les équipes de @SNCFReseau se sont massivement mobilisées depuis ce matin. Elles ont procédé à des réparations d’urgence permettant une reprise partielle et très progressive des circulations depuis 13h.
➡️ Sur la ligne Atlantique, un train sur trois circule en direction de la… pic.twitter.com/sMQazoliku
— SNCF Voyageurs (@SNCFVoyageurs) July 26, 2024
SNCF said it was rushing to repair the lines but that travel would be disrupted through the weekend. “Early this morning, acts of sabotage were carried out in a prepared and coordinated manner on SNCF installations,” French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said in a statement on X. “Our intelligence services and law enforcement are mobilized to find and punish the perpetrators of these criminal acts.”
French authorities have not revealed who is behind the attacks but there are two popular theories: militant French leftists or Russia. The sabotaging of a rail network late at night when people probably won’t get hurt fits the modus operandi of French militant leftists. Unnamed security officials told Reuters they were the likely culprits, but wouldn’t go on record and did not share evidence to back the claim.
Russia as a culprit is more outlandish but not impossible. The French intelligence services have been busy in the past few months in the run-up to the Olympics. On July 19, they arrested Kirill Griaznov—a Russian-born chef who has lived in Paris for a decade—and accused him of plotting a large-scale “destabilization” project in Paris.
Attal reaffirmed the accusation of coordinated sabotage in a TV interview the morning after the attack. “Nerve points were targeted,” he said. “Which shows knowledge of the network.”
