France’s high-speed rail network has been hit with widespread and “criminal” acts of vandalism including arson attacks, paralysing travel to Paris from across the rest of France and Europe hours before the opening ceremony of the Olympics.
Officials condemned the attacks as “criminal actions” and prosecutors in Paris opened a national investigation saying the crimes could carry sentences of 15 to 20 years.
As Paris authorities geared up for a spectacular parade along the Seine River, three fires were reported near the tracks on the high-speed lines of Atlantique, Nord and Est, causing disruption that affected hundreds of thousands of travellers.
Among them were two German showjumpers who were on a train to Paris to take part in the opening ceremony but had to turn back in Belgium because of the closures, and will now miss the ceremony, German news agency dpa reported.
“There was no longer a chance of making it on time,” rider Philipp Weishaupt, who was travelling with teammate Christian Kukuk, told dpa.
There were no known reports of injuries.
Two out of four trains carrying Olympic athletes to Paris on the western Atlantique line were stopped hours before the opening ceremony, SNCF said.
Franck Dubourdieu, head of the Atlantique line, could not say which athletes were halted or whether they would make it for the ceremony.
He said services were improving and added the impact on the opening ceremony is very small.
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said France’s intelligence services have been mobilised to find the perpetrators of “acts of sabotage” which he described as “prepared and co-ordinated”.
He said the sabotage and arson had “a clear objective: blocking the high-speed train network”.
He added that the vandals strategically targeted routes from the north, east and west towards Paris hours before the capital hosted the Olympics opening ceremony.
It was “a premeditated, calculated, co-ordinated attack” that indicates “a desire to seriously harm” the French people, the SNCF rail company’s chief executive Jean-Pierre Farandou said.
“The places were especially chosen to have the most serious impact, since each fire cut off two lines,” he added.
The incidents paralysed high-speed lines linking Paris to the rest of France and to neighbouring countries, transport minister Patrice Vergriete told BFM television.
The attack occurred against a backdrop of global tensions and heightened security measures as the city prepared for the 2024 Games. Many passengers were planning to converge on the capital for the opening ceremony, and many holidaymakers were also in transit.
French authorities have foiled several plots to disrupt the Olympics, including arresting a Russian man on suspicion of planning to destabilise the event.
The Paris police prefecture “concentrated its personnel in Parisian train stations” after the “massive attack” that paralysed the TGV high-speed network, city police chief Laurent Nunez told France Info television.
Also on Friday, the French airport of Basel-Mulhouse on the border with Germany and Switzerland was evacuated in the morning and remained temporarily closed “for safety reasons”. It was not clear whether there was a connection to the rail attacks.
Sports minister Amelie Oudea-Castera said authorities were working to “evaluate the impact on travellers, athletes, and ensure the transport of all delegations to the competition sites” for the Olympics.
Speaking on BFM television, she added: “Playing against the Games is playing against France, against your own camp, against your country.”
SNCF said it did not know when traffic would resume and feared that disruptions would continue “at least all weekend”.
Teams “were already on site to carry out diagnostics and begin repairs” but the “situation should last at least all weekend while the repairs are carried out”, the operator said.
SNCF advised “all passengers to postpone their journey and not to go to the station”, specifying in its press release that all tickets were exchangeable and refundable.
Valerie Pecresse, president of the regional council of the greater Paris region, speaking from Montparnasse station, said “250,000 travellers will be affected today on all these lines”. Substitution plans were under way, but she advised travellers “not to go to stations”.
